Directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmakers Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (“Boys State”), the new documentary The Mission explores the 2018 death of American missionary John Chau, who was killed while attempting to make contact with one of the world’s most isolated Indigenous peoples on remote North Sentinel Island.
The Mission world premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Festival, and opens in select North American theaters beginning Friday, Oct. 13, in New York and Toronto, with a continued rollout to theaters in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Vancouver, Portland and other cities across the country through November. It will debut in U.K. and Irish theaters on Friday, Nov. 17.
In 2018, a shocking event made headlines around the world: A young American missionary, John Chau, was killed by arrows while attempting to contact one of the world’s most isolated Indigenous peoples on remote North Sentinel Island. From Emmy-winning directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (“Boys State”), and OscarⓇ-winning producer Simon Chinn and Emmy-winning producer Jonathan Chinn of Lightbox, comes National Geographic Documentary Films’ THE MISSION, which uncovers the gripping story beyond the headlines. Through exclusive interviews and with unprecedented access to Chau’s secret plans, personal diaries and video archives, THE MISSION examines the mythology of exploration that inspired him, the evangelical community that supported his quest, and reveals his own father’s heartbreak as Chau’s youthful thirst for adventure became a fatal obsession.
“Looking closely at John Chau’s death, we found a complicated, layered story, equal parts adventure and tragedy. At its core, it’s an intimate drama, an emotional dialogue between father and son. But it also raises questions for all of us about the great historical forces that have shaped our world, about the implications of faith and the legacy of the so-called Age of Discovery. It’s a story worthy of the big screen, and one that echoes the epic tales that inspired John and finally doomed him,” said directors McBaine and Moss.
McBaine and Moss worked patiently for years to gain the cooperation of John’s friends, teachers and advisors. Several are featured in the film, including Levi Davis, who formed an “accountability group” with John when they were fellow students at Vancouver Christian High School; Adam Goodheart, historian; and Dan Everett, professor of linguistics and a former missionary who shares his firsthand experiences of the enduring myths of colonial evangelism.
John’s father, Patrick Chau, is given voice via excerpts from written statements reckoning with John’s faith, his death and Patrick’s own anguished failures as a parent to prevent John from undertaking the “foolhardy mission.” Meanwhile, John’s personal diary, including a 13-page entry of his last days, social media and blog posts, letters he shared with supporters, and a secret 26-page “master plan” he wrote outlining his understanding of the Sentinelese and plans for converting them, serve as a window into his innermost thoughts right up until his final days.
To visualize John’s master plan, which outlined in detail his strategy to reach the island and convert the Sentinelese, filmmakers drew on the same art form that inspired him — comics. Hand-drawn animation brings to life key moments in the story, in the vein of “Tintin” and “Through Gates of Splendor,” a 1970s Christian comic book about the five young American missionaries killed by the Huaorani people in Ecuador in 1956.
Watch the official trailer for The Mission.