Deeply moving and laugh-out-loud funny, Mission: JOY is a documentary with unprecedented access to the unlikely friendship of two international icons who transcend religion: His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu. In their final joint mission, these self-described mischievous brothers give a master class in how to create joy in a world that was never easy for them. They offer neuroscience-backed wisdom to help each of us live with more joy, despite circumstances.
Inspired by New York Times bestseller The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, the film showcases the exchange between these two Nobel Peace Prize winners that led to that book.
Consisting largely of never-before-seen footage shot over 5 days at the Dalai Lama’s residence in Dharamsala, the film invites viewers to join these luminaries behind the scenes as they recount stories from their lives, each having lived through periods of incredible difficulty and strife. With genuine affection, mutual respect and a healthy dose of teasing, these unlikely friends impart lessons gleaned from lived experience, ancient traditions, and the latest cutting-edge science regarding how to live with joy in the face of all of life’s challenges from the extraordinary to the mundane. Mission: JOY is an antidote for the times.
Dr. Judith Mayotte is an American humanitarian, author, theologian, producer, former Catholic religious sister, ethicist, and university professor. Through her work among and advocacy on behalf of refugees and internally displaced civilians, Judy wrote Disposable People?: The Plight of Refugees (Orbis Books, 1992.) Today her focus is on issues concerned with climate change and climate displacement. She brought her experiences in the field on these issues and on human rights to university classrooms in the U.S. and South Africa, including Seattle University. Judy served in the first Clinton Administration as a Special Adviser on Refugee Issues and Policy as well as on several humanitarian boards and on the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation. Earlier, she was an Emmy Award-winning television producer. Watch Dr. Judy Mayotte moderating a 2011 discussion between Archbishop Desmond Tutu and His Holiness The Dalai Lama.
Rev. David Mesenbring lives in Seattle as a retired priest of the Diocese of Olympia. His ecumenical career included diverse roles as a social entrepreneur working to broaden the world view of North Americans. Desmond Tutu invited David to teach black seminarians in South Africa where he gathered Steve Biko’s banned writings in the tense weeks following Biko’s 1977 murder. After eight years of grass roots advocacy back home, CNN featured David in a live debate on the day Congress passed the Anti-Apartheid Economic Sanctions Act. The Christian Century recently published his reflection on Desmond Tutu. Read David’s reflection, Desmond Tutu’s Transformative Vision.
