Veteran actor, producer, and educator Joke Silva is lending her voice and experience to an important story, joining the Nigerian documentary “Mothers of Chibok” as an Executive Producer ahead of its cinema release.
From 27 February, the documentary will begin screening in cinemas across Nigeria and Ghana, distributed by FilmOne Entertainment. The rollout marks the widest theatrical release ever for a Nigerian-made documentary, bringing the story to audiences on a scale rarely seen for the genre.
Directed by Joel ‘Kachi’ Benson, “Mothers of Chibok” centres on a group of women who continue to farm their land to pay for their children’s education, years after Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls from their community in 2014. Rather than focusing solely on the tragedy, the film follows the mothers’ daily lives, resilience, and determination to keep going in the face of ongoing threats. It is Benson’s second feature-length documentary.
Speaking about why she chose to support the film, Joke Silva said:
After watching, I realised that we don’t often think about these women. We don’t understand what their journey has been. What Kachi has done with this film is amazing. 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.
FilmOne Entertainment is equally excited about bringing the documentary to the big screen. Victoria Ogar, Head of Distribution at FilmOne Entertainment, shared:
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.
For Benson, the film is about shifting how the world sees the women of Chibok — beyond the headlines and the tragedy that first drew global attention.
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.
“Mothers of Chibok” first premiered at DocNYC and has since travelled widely, screening at dozens of international festivals. It won the Encounters Al Jazeera Award for Best African Feature-Length Documentary at the Encounters Film Festival in South Africa. In 2025, Benson also made history as the first Nigerian to win a documentary Emmy for his debut feature “Madu,” now streaming on Disney+.
The film is produced by JB Multimedia Studios, Hunting Lane, and Impact Partners, in association with Shark Island Productions, with a team of Nigerian and international producers and executive producers supporting the project.
Watch the trailer below and scroll for more BTS photos.
