Inspired by the adventures stories of his youth as well as a “radical” interpretation of Jesus’ “Great Commision” , 26-year-old American John Chau set off to the distant North Sentinel Island to tell the people there–supposedly completely isolated and putatively unfriendly to visitors–of his Savior.
Directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (Boys State) join Mike to discuss not only what drove John, but who enabled him like “Pastor Bobby” and the evangelizing group All Nations. And they also explore those who either cautioned him in the moment, like John’s own father, who warned him away from colonial and imperialist thinking. As well as those who, through hard-won insight gained through experience, can provide a critical perspective now, like historian Adam Goodheart and missionary and linguist Dan Everett.
In the end, McBain’s and Moss’s film suggests, in imagining our encounter with the “untouched” other, we are telling a story about ourselves, and a lost world that never existed but that we persist in pursuing.
"The Mission" is now showing in New York in Los Angeles. It will be opening more widely in the US and Canada over the month of October.
Follow:
@topdocspod on Instagram and twitter
The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix
"Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza" with Michael John Warren
"Union" with Brett Story, Stephen Maing & Chris Smalls
"Sugarcane" with Julian Brave Noisecat & Emily Kassie
”Four Daughters” with Kaouther Ben Hania
”Stamped from the Beginning” with Roger Ross Williams
Sundance 2024 Documentary Lineup Review with Basil Tsiokos
”32 Sounds” with Sam Green
”Apolonia, Apolonia” with Lea Glob
”Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy” with Susan Margolin & Simon Kilmurry
”Art for Everybody” with Miranda Yousef
Oscar Shortlist 2024 Breakdown with Anne Thompson
Emmy Nominations Breakdown with Scott Feinberg
”Little Richard: I am Everything” with Lisa Cortés
”American Symphony” with Matthew Heineman
”Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” with Anna Hints
”Anselm” with Wim Wenders
”Between Life and Death: Terri Schiavo’s Story” with Amanda Spain & Alex Waterfield
”Beyond Utopia” with Madeleine Gavin
”High on the Hog”, Season 2 with Karis Jagger & Fabienne Toback
”A Town Called Victoria” with Li Lu
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Multiverse Fancast
Cinema: A to B
I Finally Watched...
Kill James Bond!
Pod Meets World