Back to Films

The Harvest

Synopsis

On small farmlands scattered across the village of Chibok, Northeast Nigeria, women till the dry crusty earth with ancient tools – hoes and machetes – planting seeds and praying for a good harvest. A successful harvest means more than just extra money in their purse. It is an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty they live in, by ensuring that they provide their children, especially their daughters, with an education. 

In 2014, Chibok was thrust into the spotlight when the terrorist group Boko Haram abducted 276 teenage schoolgirls, some of the daughters or sisters of our subjects. The world thinks they know these women because we know their tragedy, but tragedy does not define the entirety of their experience. These women are warriors, who continue to stand tall, year after year, so that their children may have the opportunity to do what children and mothers and entire peoples in other nations take for granted: to go to school.

THE HARVEST tells the story of an extraordinary group of Chibok women, over the course of one year’s harvest cycle, who go on in the face of continuing terror in an attempt to secure better lives for their children.

The Filmmakers

Joel ‘Kachi Benson Director/Producer

Joel ‘Kachi Benson is passionate about stories, shooting in both traditional 2D as well as virtual reality technology across his beloved Nigeria and the African continent. In April 2019, Benson’s DAUGHTERS OF CHIBOK, a film taking viewers into the heart of Nigeria’s war against the Boko Haram insurgency, made history when it won the Venice Lion for Best Immersive Story at the Venice Film Festival, making Benson the first African to win the prestigious prize in that category. DAUGHTERS OF CHIBOK has gone on to screen at some of the most prestigious festivals and venues across the globe, including Berlin, Cannes, and the Phi Centre, while winning awards and receiving special mentions including a Best Story award at Cinequest, and being listed on the Forbes List of Top 50 VR Experiences of 2019. Benson became the first Nigerian filmmaker to shoot a VR film when he released IN BAKASSI in 2017, a virtual experience of life in one of the largest IDP Camps in Northeast Nigeria. IN BAKASSI premiered at the Cairo Film Festival, and subsequently screened at HotDocs and the Berlin Film Festival. In December 2019 Benson was named among the New African Magazine’s 2019 Top 100 Most Influential Africans. Benson received formal and informal film training from the Central Film School London, Legacy Media Institute, Virginia USA; National Film & Television School, Beaconsfield UK, and StillMotion in Portland, USA. MADU, a film he co-directed, will be released by Disney+ in late 2023.

Hunting Lane

The team behind Hunting Lane has a long history of producing award-winning content in the sports, music and entertainment worlds, including creating ESPN’s first non-news sports show, The Life, featuring such legends as Shaq, Kobe and many more. Since then, the team has continued to be on the forefront of sports content, producing four documentaries for ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, STRAIGHT OUTTA LA, SOLE MAN, WHAT CARTER LOST and Emmy-award winning THE DAY THE SERIES STOPPED. Hunting Lane’s film productions include such projects as: BLUE VALENTINE with Ryan Gosling, THE ACCOUNTANT with Ben Affleck, CAPTAIN FANTASTIC with Viggo Mortensen and THE ZOOKEEPER'S WIFE with Jessica Chastain. Most recently, they released WILDFLOWER with Kiernan Shipka and Jean Smart and have a documentary, MADU, premiering on Disney+ in late 2023.