Daughters of Chibok Goes to Venice

Daughters of Chibok Goes to Venice
– Only Virtual Reality Film from Africa Competing at World’s Oldest Film Festival
 
By Vanessa Obioha
It’s another first for documentary filmmaker Joel Kachi Benson as his virtual reality docu-film ‘Daughters of Chibok’ has been selected for screening at the upcoming 76th Venice International Film Festival.
Venice International Film Festival which is the oldest film festival in the world introduced the virtual reality film competition in 2017 to celebrate and recognise films made using Virtual Reality (VR) technology. It is the first A-list film festival to toe in that path.  Over 30 immersive stores were selected for In Competition and Out of Competition for this year’s edition. Popularly known as Venice VR, the festival looks at linear and interactive content.
‘Daughters of Chibok’ is competing in the linear content category, among 12 other VR films selected from around the world, and Benson’s film, from Nigeria, is the only VR documentary from the continent. Other countries competing in this category include France, China, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, USA, Italy, Taiwan and Israel.
The films will be judged by an international jury who will determine the winners for Best VR, Best VR Experience for Interactive Content and Best VR Story for Linear Content awards respectively.
Thrilled by his nomination, Benson stated that the role of VR in today’s filmmaking cannot be overemphasized.
“I’m excited about the opportunity this gives us to share authentic African stories with world. VR is an important tool for communication and it is delightful to know that festivals like Venice have the foresight to see its impact on the future of storytelling and are celebrating it.”
“But more importantly,” he added, “We are excited that ‘Daughters of Chibok’ is going to a platform as big as the Venice Film Festival, where the audience can have the opportunity to visit Chibok – a place that many have heard of but have never been to.
‘Daughters of Chibok’, which is the first-ever VR film on the infamous Chibok kidnappings, centers on Yana Galang, a woman leader in Chibok, whose daughter was among the kidnapped Chibok girls. The 11-minute film mirrors Galang’s pain as she hopefully awaits the return of her daughter. The documentary was first screened to the public on April 14 at selected Lagos Parks and Gardens across the state to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the girls’ abduction. It has since had private screenings at The British Council, Lagos and Ventures Park, Abuja.
The film is a stark reminder that the traumatic events of that fateful night in April 2014 are still fresh, and there are women still waiting for their children to be returned.
“We hope that this film serves as a vehicle to not only transport people to Chibok, but we also want to use it as a means of raising  financial assistance to families of victims of the insurgents. It is one thing to lose your child and spend years waiting for her return, and it is another to still be living in abject poverty.  We must remember that these women have other children to cater for, and when you don’t have the means of taking care of them, that is extra pain. If we can’t bring back their girls now, at least we should be able to do something about their economic situation”, he said. More so, he realised the significant role the womenfolk of Chibok play in sustaining their families, thus the need to support affected mothers who are waiting for the return of their daughters.
Benson is currently exploring avenues for  commercial distribution for the film, and plans to use the proceeds to support the mothers of the girls that are still missing.
Benson’s love for virtual reality started in 2018, when he was commissioned to produce a 360 degree video for a client. That project opened his eyes to the potential of VR as a powerful and reformative  tool for storytelling. His first VR film was ‘In Bakassi’, a short film that captures the plight of children living with PTSD in Internally Displaced Persons Camps in the northeast region.
So far, the filmmaker’s efforts in bringing to light the plight of victims of insurgents Boko Haram have been highly lauded. For the filmmaker, conversations about the affected regions should be constant in the public spaces for the required actions to take place.
The 76th Venice International  Film Festival will run from August 28 to September 7. The festival is organised by La Biennale di Venezia, and will take place at Venice Lido.

Related Articles