Mothers of Chibok follows a group of mothers as they farm their land to pay for their children’s education, despite threats from Boko Haram, who kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls from their village in 2014.
By Adedamola Jones Adedayo
Award-winning Nollywood actor, producer and educator Joke Silva has joined as executive producer of Nigerian documentary Mothers of Chibok (2024) ahead of its theatrical run. The documentary is programmed for a groundbreaking theatrical run beginning from 27th February, 2026 in Nigeria and Ghana, West Africa, with FilmOne Entertainment spearheading the distribution.
Mothers of Chibok is the second feature-length documentary production from Joel Kachi Benson, coming after the Emmy-winning Madu (2024), a Disney Original Documentary that he co-directed with Matthew Ogens. Mothers of Chibok follows a group of mothers as they farm their land to pay for their children’s education, despite threats from Boko Haram, who kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls from their village in 2014.
The documentary is a sequel to Daughters of Chibok (2019), Benson’s virtual reality documentary short that equally captures the aftermath of the kidnapping. The short was the first African film to win “Best VR Immersive Story for Linear Content” at the Venice International Film Festival.
In an Afrocritik review, Mothers of Chibok is described as a piece that enables filmmakers’ reflections on how they “might not fix history but may prevent it from being buried”. The documentary made Afrocritik’s 30 Remarkable Features Films of 2025, noted for its resistance to the common narrative trope about resilience for “something unsettling”, reimagining themes of endurance, grief and motherhood.
Speaking about her new role as executive producer, Joke Silva reacted to the sparseness of thought and discourse that navigates the journey of the women who are subjects of Mothers of Chibok. “What Kachi has done with this film is amazing,” Silva said. “By hearing their voices and seeing their routines, we, the audience, understand that the Chibok tragedy is about families, about education, about community. I couldn’t be more thrilled to support a filmmaker like Kachi, whose record of the endurance, resistance and resilience of the mothers of Chibok will make it harder for future generations to forget what happened to the girls and their families in 2014 and what continues to happen to them now”.
Benson added, “We think we know the women of Chibok because we know their tragedy. But that tragedy is just one part of their story, the one the world is quick to see. One cannot know the mothers of Chibok until you truly know the depth of their strength and resilience. My aim is to use this film to show a side to these heroines that the world never sees: women who have stood, and continue to stand as pillars in the Chibok community, comforting each other, upholding each other, and above all, hoping and working together to make tomorrow better for their children”.
Victoria Ogar, Head of Distribution at FilmOne Entertainment, said, “We’re thrilled to be bringing this powerful and hopeful documentary to audiences throughout Nigeria and Ghana. We believe there is a growing audience for documentary storytelling in West Africa, and we’re excited for them to discover Kachi’s beautiful film, which deserves to be seen in a theatrical environment”.
Mothers of Chibok premiered at DocNYC and has since screened at several dozen festivals around the world, including Encounters Film Festival in South Africa, where it won the Encounters Al Jazeera Award for Best African Feature-Length Documentary. In an earlier interview with Afrocritik, Benson shared his social impact goals for Mothers of Chibok, hinting at plans to support the Chibok mothers in their agricultural practices and trading.
Mothers of Chibok is produced by JB Multimedia Studios, Hunting Lane and Impact Partners in association with Shark Island Productions. The film is produced by Jamie Patricof, Rachel Halilej, Katie McNeill, Kachi Benson, Samira Mohammad and Adeyinka Oduniyi. In addition to Joke Silva, executive producers include Ian Darling, Adam and Melony Lewis, Debbie L. McLeod, Meadow Fund, Jim and Susan Swartz, Jenny Raskin, and Geralyn White Dreyfous. Co-executive producers include Marni E.J. Grossman, Ann W. Lovell, Jennifer Pelling, Christine Woodhouse & Seth Woodhouse, and Kelsey Koenig.