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
”The Janes” with Tia Lessin & Emma Pildes
”Blind Ambition” with Rob Coe & Warwick Ross
”Civil” with Nadia Hallgren
”Nothing Compares” with Kathryn Ferguson
”Navalny” with Daniel Roher
”Moonage Daydream” with Brett Morgen
”Gaslit” -- Fact or Fiction with Jim Robenalt
Emmy Roundup with Scott Feinberg
”Three Minutes: A Lengthening” with Bianca Stigter
”The Territory” with Alex Pritz
”Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” with Ian Denyer
”When Claude Got Shot” with Brad Lichtenstein
”Controlling Britney Spears” with Samantha Stark & Liz Day
”We Feed People” with Sara Bernstein
”The Beatles: Get Back” with Peter Jackson
”Lucy And Desi” with Robert A. Martinez
”Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches” with Julie Marchesi and Seun Babalola
”100 Foot Wave” with Joe Lewis
”George Carlin’s American Dream” with Michael Bonfiglio
”Changing the Game” with Michael Barnett, Clare Tucker, Alex Schmider
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Multiverse Fancast
Cinema: A to B
I Finally Watched...
Kill James Bond!
Pod Meets World