Fly Now, Pray Later: Humanitarian Time and Humanitarian Heroes in the Documentary Jesus Christ Airlines

Abstract This article discusses the documentary Jesus Christ Airlines (2001) which focuses on Joint Church Aid, a collaboration platform that transported humanitarian aid to Biafra through an airlift 1968–1970. The documentary is examined as a historical film that seeks to inspire collective humanitarian action in the present. The article addresses the lack of historical analysis in a sector which remains focused on the present and the lingering negligence of the masculine norms that are upheld by humanitarian work. It argues that the documentary replicates the logic of emergency thinking: the immediacy of humanitarian action leaves no room for reflection, neither in the 1960s nor in 2001. Instead, it provides men from the Global North both an escape from, and a means to live up to masculine norms, provided that they are willing to take risks and provided that the humanitarian other remains a perpetual victim.