Veteran actor, producer and educator, Joke Silva, has joined the Nigerian documentary, Mothers of Chibok, as an Executive Producer ahead of its cinema release, lending her voice and experience to the project.
The documentary is set to begin screening in cinemas across Nigeria and Ghana from February 27, with distribution handled by FilmOne Entertainment.
The release marks the widest theatrical rollout ever for a Nigerian-made documentary, bringing the story to audiences on an unprecedented scale for the genre.
Directed by Joel ‘Kachi’ Benson, Mothers of Chibok focuses on women who continue to farm their land to fund their children’s education, years after Boko Haram abducted hundreds of schoolgirls from their community in 2014. Rather than centring solely on the tragedy, the film explores the mothers’ daily lives, resilience and determination amid persistent insecurity.
It is Benson’s second feature-length documentary.
Explaining her decision to support the project, 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 also expressed enthusiasm about the cinema release. The company’s Head of Distribution, Victoria Ogar, 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.
For Benson, the documentary aims to reshape global perceptions of the women of Chibok beyond the tragedy that first captured international 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 premiered at DocNYC and has since been screened at dozens of international film festivals. The documentary won the Encounters Al Jazeera Award for Best African Feature-Length Documentary at the Encounters Film Festival in South Africa.
In 2025, Benson also became the first Nigerian to win a documentary Emmy for his debut feature Madu, which is now streaming on Disney+.
The film was produced by JB Multimedia Studios, Hunting Lane and Impact Partners, in association with Shark Island Productions, with support from a team of Nigerian and international producers and executive producers.
