It’s been five years since the abduction of the Chibok girls in the Borno State, North East region of Nigeria. Many people have decided to settle for the fact that it is propaganda and just focus on their own lives. Joel Kachi Benson hasn’t forgotten. He reached out to the mothers of the missing Chibok schoolgirls and he came up with the idea of a Virtual Reality (VR) documentary.
Unlike most Nigerians who branded the story lies and deceit, Benson took a team of filmmakers to Chibok to find out the truth. What he found were broken mothers who have become advocates praying for their daughter’ return. This and many more findings left him in awe, so he compiled a documentary relating to the missing Chibok schoolgirls, ‘Daughters of Chibok’.
The documentary is accessible using a VR headset and it focuses on some of the mothers of the missing Chibok girls. It puts more light on one woman, Yana Galang. Rifkatu her daughter is among the 276 girls taken from their school dormitory in Chibok in April 2014.
In the documentary, Galang prays for her daughter’s return and it has become a daily routine. Galang along with the rest of the mothers are keeping their hopes alive. They have formed a group to comfort and help each other through the pain. They try to survive with farming amidst their grief. How can anyone suffer so much? Prayer is their only source of comfort and this is what the documentary wants to show to the world.
‘Daughters of Chibok’ is immersive and is to help us keep up on this painful subject which seems to be fading when in fact it should not. To feel and see the pain of the women through virtual reality. In September, ‘Daughters of Chibok’ won best virtual reality story at the Venice Film Festival.
Benson and his team hope to provide the women with modern farming tools. The documentary director also noted that he will not be able to replace a missing child – in truth, none of us can. However, we can all help make life easier for these women. They need support, not doubts.
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