Aspect Ratio x KAOS Network: Cultural Literacy Collider featuring Ijeoma Iloputaife & Jenn Nkiru

Dive into a powerful educational series bridging generations through film, dialogue, and critical media literacy. Curated and facilitated by legendary KAOS Network founder Ben Caldwell, L.A. Rebellion filmmaker Alile Sharon Larkin, and LACMA assistant curator of film Matazi Weathers, this series spotlights bold works by local filmmakers, surprise guest appearances, and unfiltered conversations on the role of storytelling in shaping cultural consciousness, both locally and globally.

Our January session will focus on honoring the life and work of Nigerian L.A. Rebellion filmmaker, painter, and author Ijeoma IIoputaife (1951–2025), also known as Omah Diegu, along with conversations and new work from Nigerian-British artist and director Jenn Nkiru.

Ijeoma IIoputaife (1951-2025), also known as Omah Diegu and ‘oma ‘taife, was a Ghana-born Nigerian filmmaker, painter and author. The first African woman to study film at UCLA, she was part of the second generation of the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers, also called L.A. Rebellion. Today, her short film African Women, U.S.A (1980) is one of the standard works of feminist African-American cinema. After returning to Nigeria, she lived in Germany for a while which led to the autobiographical documentary The Snake in my Bed (1995) made in collaboration with Das kleine Fernsehspiel.

Jenn Nkiru is a Nigerian-British Grammy Award–winning artist and director from London. Her works have been screened internationally at venues including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Tate Modern, the ICA, London, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane.

Co-presented by KAOS Network and LACMA’s Aspect Ratio