South African Film Festival | Mission Joy

88 Mins | Doco, Family | All Ages
Academy Award-winning director Louie Psihoyos teams up with co-director Peggy Callahan on Mission: Joy – Finding Happiness in Troubled Times, 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.

Proceeds support Education Without Borders.

Director
Louie Psihoyos

Producer
Mark Monroe, Peggy Callahan

Editor
Joshua Altman, Andrew Buckland, Barry O Donnell, Matt Stamm

Cast
Tenzin Gyatso, Desmond Tutu, Doug Abrahams