Nigeria’s Pride, Africa’s Trailblazer In VR Films
Benson made history on September 7 at the Venice International Film Festival when he became the first African to win the prestigious VR award for his virtual reality ‘Daughters of Chibok’. His win has placed him in the limelight. Vanessa Obioha writes about her recent encounter with the young filmmaker
The ambience inside the virtual reality lab of the Facebook NG Hub in Yaba, Lagos was exhilarating. Not even a downpour could douse the mood of the young individuals inside the lab. Some were seated in groups and others stood, all chatting. The camaraderie was infectious. Everyone knew each other and expressed a certain degree of enthusiasm that could only suggest a celebration. Inside one of the adjoining rooms in the lab sat Joel Kachi Benson, the first African documentary filmmaker to win the prestigious Virtual Reality award in the just-concluded Venice International Film Festival. He was dressed in black jeans and a t-shirt. His short black spiky dreadlocks highlighted his youthful look. He swivelled in the seat, maintaining a calm and collected disposition as if he was unaware of the buzz around him.
Of course, he knew everyone was there for him. Since he won the award, he has been inundated with calls and messages from well-wishers and prospective collaborators. There were also requests for interviews from both local and international media houses. His name seemed to be on everyone’s lips. On Twitter, there was a debate on his provenance. People wondered if he was a Nigerian, and if Nigerian, what part of the country was he from. The limelight was suddenly on him. He had just returned from a trip in Abuja that morning to join his friends at the lab to mark the outstanding milestone. He has not been able to catch some sleep. He would later tell his friend and supporter, Judith Okonkwo of Imisi 3D that he felt his head was padded with cotton wool.
Despite the stress, Benson would never have missed the celebration for anything. They were part of his success story. In December 2018, Benson screened his first virtual reality film ‘In Bakassi’ to a motley audience. That screening took place at the hub and Okonkwo moderated the question and answer session. Virtual reality films were relatively new to the audience but they were impressed by its immersive state. They travelled with Benson into the simulated 3-D Bakassi Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Maiduguri. They walked with Modu Mustapha, the subject of the documentary as he tried to survive in an environment that reeked of hardship and frustration. They felt his trauma when he relayed the heart-rending moment his father was killed in a suicide bombing. His mother absconded after that terrible incident and Mustapha was left with the responsibility of catering for his younger siblings and aged grandmother.
The film was lauded in international film festivals such as Cairo International Film Festival and the Berlin International Film
The result of his curiosity was the award-winning ‘Daughters of Chibok’, a gripping tale about Yana Galang whose daughter is among the kidnapped girls that were abducted by the insurgents Boko Haram in 2014