“Daughters of Chibok Was Birthed Out of Curiosity”- Kachi Benson
Venice Film Festival awardee, Kachi Benson, has discussed the emotions behind his award-winning Virtual Reality film, “Daughters of Chibok”.
Kachi Benson of Nigerian descent, bagged the award for ‘Best Virtual Reality Story’ earlier this month at the 76th Venice International Film Festival, topping other entrants across the globe.
The winning documentary “Daughters of Chibok”, tells the story of over 200 school girls who were kidnapped in broad daylight during school hours in Chibok community of Borno State, 2014.
The film places a focus on the plight of mourning mothers and the dreadful condition in which they are forced to live in.
In an interview with Channels TV today, Kachi revealed that the film came into being as a result of his curiosity.
He said: “I’ve always been curious about Chibok. I’ve always wanted to know about that story. A lot was shrouded in mystery or some sort of secrecy when the story broke five years ago. From then on, as a story teller, it aroused my curiosity. I started asking questions. I wanted to meet the mothers of these girls that have been kidnapped. I wanted to speak to them and hear from them. I wanted to know if this is true and that was it.”
“The moment we spoke to to one of the women, it was not a hard decision to make to tell the story. Many people have heard about Chibok, but very few have been to Chibok,” he added.
Kachi revealed that his entire focus changed when he got to have a first-hand experience of the mothers of the victims, who were forced to farm on a “desert” without adequate funds for fertilizers.
“The most pressing thing that I discovered which is what switched my curiosity to sort of a campaign, was the plight of the women, the mothers of these girls.”
According to him, this plight made him conclude that the world deserved to know about the heart-wrenching story of the bereaved mothers.
He further expressed grief at the fact that the women who were still mourning were also living in “abject poverty”.
Kachi disclosed that the women pleaded with him to help spread news of their poverty to the world so that they can at least get the attention of Government officials to provide them with farming tools.
