EXCLUSIVE: Tonight, Telluride hosts the world premiere of the National Geographic documentary The Mission, the riveting story of a young Christian missionary who set out to evangelize an isolated Indigenous people, with fatal results.
Ahead of the premiere, we’ve got your first look at the film directed by Emmy winners Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss in the trailer above. NatGeo, partnering with Picturehouse and Altitude on the theatrical release, will debut The Mission in the U.S. on October 13 and in the U.K. and Ireland on November 17 (Altitude is also handling international sales). The Mission is produced McBaine and Moss and by Oscar winner Simon Chinn (Searching for Sugar Man, Man on Wire), Emmy winner Jonathan Chinn (LA 92, Tina) and Emmy nominee Will Cohen (Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie).
“In 2018, a shocking event made headlines around the world,” notes a synopsis of the films. “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” in the Andaman Sea 1,700 km from India.
Chau went there by boat with a waterproof Bible in hand, intending to convert the islanders to Christianity, even though he was aware other would-be missionaries had been repelled by force. He also knew his endeavor violated Indian law. But he feared North Sentinel Island might represent Satan’s last redoubt, and he felt compelled by his faith to preach the Gospel to the Sentinelese.
“There were a lot of headlines in the immediate aftermath of John’s death,” Moss tells Deadline, “but I think the collision of these two forces of John and everything that he represented and this tribe that we knew almost nothing about, suggested that there was more to the story. And that was the opportunity for us to take on with this film is to really explore… what put John on this path and how did he come to the fate of dying on this island.”
“What’s also interesting about this is it’s a story of these two cultures meeting,” McBaine adds. “In investigating it, even in reading the headline initially, we recognized that John’s life was going to raise questions not just within the Christian community, but for all of us. And I think that that was an itch that we needed to scratch.”
Among the deep questions raised by the film are ethical and religious ones. In the 21st century, what is the justification for entering the protected territory of an Indigenous group and, in effect, informing them their spiritual beliefs are false? Especially when the group in question has made it abundantly clear they do not wish to be contacted by outsiders. The history of the last 500+ years has been the West (for the most part) colonizing great swaths of the planet in the name of Christianity (although typically with ulterior motives of gaining access to Indigenous lands and wealth).
“As secular people, we’re interested in how people live their faith,” Moss notes. “I think it’s a question for not just secular people, but religious people too. What does it mean to live the teachings of Jesus? And for John, this led him on what most of us would consider a very extreme path, and yet for him seemed entirely logical, and to people around him who supported him. He wasn’t a lone wolf; he had a community of support. We wanted to trace that path, and I think in doing so, it did reveal dimensions to the story that actually reflect back on all of us – Westerners, non-religious people – our relationship to Indigenous communities around the world.”
Carolyn Bernstein, EVP of documentary films for National Geographic, noted in a statement, “The Mission contains multitudes, thanks to Amanda and Jesse’s artful, empathic and nuanced storytelling. It is a gripping murder mystery that examines the moral and ethical implications of John Chau’s story to probe deeply into the complicated history of colonialism and global exploration. We are thrilled to collaborate once again with our friends at Lightbox on this captivating and provocative film.”
Lightbox co-founders Simon Chinn and Jonathan Chinn added, “We were both moved and troubled by the news of John Chau’s untimely death in the Andaman Islands in 2018 and our partners at National Geographic immediately saw the potential that we saw in his story for a feature documentary. The film that Jesse and Amanda have made has used that story as a springboard for a thought-provoking and multilayered narrative that also asks difficult questions about our fraught relationship with Indigenous people, and we are hugely excited to be returning to Telluride to premiere the film.”
The Mission is co-produced by Vanessa Tovell and Carolyn Sperry Lewis, edited by Aaron Wickenden (ACE), and executive produced by Doug Bock Clark, with animation from Jason Carpenter and Holly Stone. Music is by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans; Thorsten Thielow serves as director of photography. Carolyn Bernstein serves as executive producer for National Geographic Documentary Films.
Watch the trailer above.