An illegal missionary trip that resulted in the death of a 26-year-old evangelical Christian divided the world’s onlookers into two categories: the critics of a colonizer or the supporters of a new martyr. In this raw, thoughtful and detailed portrayal, the line between delusion and divine conviction is finer than ever in “The Mission.”
When it comes to grappling with relationships between colonialism and faith, or lack thereof, the film is an unflattering yet necessary mirror for even the most secular audience members. John Chau was a young Christian missionary who aspired to do what none of his predecessors had dared: embark on a theological quest to spread the gospel to the Indigenous people of remote North Sentinel Island. The voyage — disguised as a fantastical adventure in his mind, as evidenced through his diary entries read aloud by an actor throughout the film — became a fatal pursuit when the Sentinelese shot him with arrows.
Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, the husband and wife directing team behind the documentary, set out to delve deeper into the story that set the media ablaze in 2018. Instead of shoving a one-sided, vilified version of the events down viewers’ throats for dramatic effect, Moss and McBaine gently place several perspectives into your hands for consideration.
“We came to understand that John subscribed to two faiths: his Christian faith, but also the faith of the religion of adventure and exploration,” Moss said at a University of Southern California screening. The film is a metaphysical exploration of the evangelical superiority complex, effectively embarking on a critical — but most importantly, fair — examination of the extreme religious mindset. Moss and McBaine simultaneously and intimately explore the nuances of the young man who let his conviction take him too far through interviews with old friends, a former missionary, an anthropologist, historian and a gut-wrenching letter from John’s father, Patrick.
Arguably the most powerful, Patrick Chau’s letter, read by an actor, addresses the pain of losing his son to unbridled faith and a quest he desperately tried to discourage. His sobering narrative is illustrated by hand-sketched animation, bringing John’s world to life. For McBaine, this father-son relationship is the spine, heart and soul of the entire movie.
To humanize actions that are unthinkable to many is an uncomfortable and daunting task, but Moss and McBaine do so thoughtfully. The story is structured so that it will resonate with audiences regardless of their backgrounds and beliefs.
“We live in such a polarized and divided country and we’re not naive about that. But I think it’s important to find ways of connection if we can,” Moss told the screening audience. The team also spoke passionately about their hope to engage faith communities in conversations that re-evaluate the problematic nature of missionary work.
The following week, when film critic and USC professor Leonard Maltin asked that same audience for their thoughts on the film, students spoke more candidly about their distaste. One voiced their anger about the filmmakers bestowing a platform on John Chau. They felt that both sides did not deserve to be told in this story. Another student echoed that, saying they “despised” the film for empathizing with Chau, which elicited an explosion of applause from the theater.
This type of discourse, however, does not leave room to consider the implications of that kind of lack of journalistic integrity. If documentarians are to portray radical, polarizing ideas from only the side that aligns with their point of view, the film will inevitably fail at its primary goal: allowing a variety of audiences to reevaluate their perspectives. The film’s final product needed to preserve a picture of the full truth, which was a priority for McBaine and Moss.
At their core, people are not black and white; for the film to claim so would be a disservice to our understanding of any individual or group. If the filmmakers were to refuse to portray the nuanced ideologies of the people on all sides of this story, we would merely be watching an echo chamber. John Chau should not be glorified, but he must be understood, and understanding a person means reflecting on both the good and the bad.
It is for this reason among so many others that where so many documentaries fail, Moss and McBaine shine.
“The Mission” is currently in select theaters throughout Los Angeles.