Meet Joel Benson, 2019 `The Lion Award' Winner for Best VR Story at Venice Film Festival

A Nigerian, Joel Kachi Benson, has emerged winner of The Lion Award for Best VR Story at the 2019 Venice Film Festival for his Virtual Reality documentary “Daughters of Chibok.”



Joel Kachi Benson is the founder and Creative Director of JB Multimedia Studios based in Lagos, an independent production company committed to creating, promoting and reimaging local content, presenting it in a refreshingly new lights.

Daughters of Chibok competed with 11 other Virtual Reality films selected from around the world. It competed in the linear content category and it was the only VR documentary from Africa.

Joel Kachi Benson

Daughters of Chibok, is the first-ever VR film on the infamous Chibok kidnappings. The 11-minute film centers on Yana Galang, a woman leader in Chibok, whose daughter was among the kidnapped Chibok girls. It mirrors her pain as she hopefully awaits the return of her daughter.

The documentary was first screened to the public on April 14 at selected Lagos Parks and Gardens across the state to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the girls’ abduction. It has since had private screenings at The British Council, Lagos and Ventures Park, Abuja.

The Venice festival, which ran from August 28 to September 7, at the Venice Lido, is the oldest film festival in the world. It introduced the virtual reality film competition in 2017 to celebrate and recognise films made using Virtual Reality (VR) technology.

Benson’s first VR film was ‘In Bakassi’, a short film that captures the plight of children living with PTSD in Internally Displaced Persons Camps in the northeast region.