2023 Movies : Documentary

Based on the ProPublica article, the documentary recounts the riveting narrative of the Reels family, led by the matriarch fondly known as "Mamie." Ever since the days following emancipation, the Reels family dedicated themselves to farming, fishing, and painstakingly forging a sustainable existence upon their expansive parcel of land nestled along the coastal reaches of North Carolina's Silver Dollar Road. Their unwavering stance led to their wrongful conviction for civil contempt in 2011, resulting in the harshest sentence ever issued for such an offense in North Carolina—eight long years behind bars. Finally released in 2019, Mamie, Melvin, and Licurtis continue their arduous struggle to reclaim the land that was unjustly ripped from their ancestral embrace.

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. 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.