Kachi Benson’s “Daughters of Chibok” Wins Best Virtual Reality Story At Venice Film Festival

“Daughters of Chibok”, a film by Joel Kachi Benson, has emerged as the Best Virtual Reality story at the 76th Venice International Film Festival in Italy.

News Agency of Nigeria reports that the film is a story of the April 2014 abduction of 276 female students from Government Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria.

The Virtual Reality documentary, which also had its premiere at the festival, tells the story of Yana Galang, whose daughter was among the kidnapped girls.

It also tells of how 107 girls were returned after government negotiations with the abductors, leaving 112 girls behind in the terrorist camp.

The film represented Nigeria and Africa and topped 12 other Virtual Reality films selected from across the globe.

In Kachi’s acceptance speech, the movie director noted that the movie came into being as a result of his sense of responsibility towards ensuring that the girls weren’t forgotten so easily.

“With this VR film, all I wanted to do was to take the world to the women of Chibok who, five years after their daughters had been kidnapped, are still living with the incredible pain of their absence. I felt it was wrong for us to forget or even doubt and move on,” he said.

Benson, who runs a virtual reality film studios, VR360 in Lagos, went ahead in a later post to say, “I still can’t believe this. It’s like a dream….our VR film #daughtersofchibok won a Lion Award in the VR category of the Venice biennale!!!!! Somebody tell me it’s a dream!!!!”

Congratulations!