The Mission
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Sundance 2022 Critic’s Notebook: The Mission, Utama
The beginning of Tania Anderson’s The Mission transported me from my virtual festival cocoon to Utah’s snowy slopes and the towns below; the ambient Mormonism emanating from those surroundings is a shadow structure of any IRL Sundance. Anderson’s debut feature documentary invites viewers to observe the nice-seeming young men and women dispatched from there to proselytize on behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The opening introduces four main subjects—two male, two female—preparing to separate from their families for a two-year term, beginning with nine weeks of missionary training camp in Provo. From there, they’re sent to Finland, whose total […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jan 27, 2022 -
“LDS Folk Are the Same Whether They’re North Americans or Finns”: Tania Anderson on Her Sundance-Debuting Doc The Mission
World premiering January 24th in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at this year’s Sundance, The Mission marks the feature-length doc debut of Helsinki-based writer and journalist Tania Anderson, who, on a cold winter day back in 2016, happened to pass by a pair of English-speaking young men in familiar suits discussing the perils of temptation. Which prompted the open-minded British-Swiss-American to wonder not, “What the heck are Mormon missionaries doing in Finland?” (my first question), but “What makes them tick?” And from this combination of curiosity and accidental eavesdropping the idea for The Mission was born. To find out more about the film, which […]
by Lauren Wissot on Jan 24, 2022 -
“I’ve Always Loved the Editing Style in a Lot of 1970s American Films”: Editor Suvi Solja on The Mission
The Mission focuses on four missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints working in Finland. In addition to the often frustrating day-to-day missionary work, director Tania Anderson also captures the missionaries on the eve of their departure, during their Finnish language lessons and on their welcomes home. Editor Suvi Solja discusses the challenges of piercing the nonchalant façade of the subjects and the decision to include a voiceover in the film, as well as why she frequently watches the opening of Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2022 -
“You’ve Got to Roll With the Punches” | Tania Anderson, The Mission
The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year? When COVID first hit, we had been filming the young missionaries in our film for seven months. We had 17 to go. At that time, it […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2022 -
“By Limiting the Toolset We Were Ultimately Enhancing the Protagonist’s Point of View”: DP Antti Savolainen on The Mission
For her first feature documentary, Tania Anderson became the first filmmaker to receive approval to film Mormon missionaries. The Mission brings viewers along with four American teens as they make contact and proselytize in Finland, reflecting on their work, themselves and the world in the process. DP Antti Savolainen explains his unusual lens choice for the documentary and why intentionally limiting his options was in service of the film. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Savolainen: For […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2022 -
“I Strive To Be Professional with Everyone, and I Never Hold Grudges”: Corrine Aquino on Management and Production
I remember signing with an agent. As an eleven-year-old actress, the prospect of TV and radio work was thrilling. When I didn’t book a print job, my agent blamed it on the braces. But when I landed a local Cleveland radio spot, my flair for voiceover was celebrated, but not too much. With children for clients, my agent was careful to keep any star-driven egos in-check (even though the moms were bigger hazards). What I remember most during this year-long agency exploit is not the disappointment of frequent rejection or the high of occasional validation; I mostly remember the relationship between my agent […]
by Taylor Hess on Apr 14, 2015
