Over seven years ago, we embarked on a journey to do something new and ambitious: transform our investigative journalism into an animated rap-documentary, using a medium that could cross ages, borders, and backgrounds to reach an audience traditional reporting never could. The result is Rhapsody on the Outlaw Ocean, which brings to life more than a decade of offshore reporting into a film that merges journalism, animation, and music to illuminate one of the least understood spaces on Earth: the high seas. The rap lyrics and music were written by Will Segal, and the film was vocally performed by cast members of the Broadway musical Hamilton.

This experiment is our attempt to find a new way to chronicle a place that has always felt too vast, too distant, and, at times, too strange to be captured through traditional story-telling. Based on investigations by Ian Urbina, the film takes you through a gritty realm of sea slaves, oil dumpers, vigilante conservationists, whalers, poachers, mercenaries and stowaways — alongside a journalist trying to figure out how to render it all with emotional accuracy.

Rhapsody on the Outlaw Ocean will premiere at the London Breeze Film Festival at Riverside Studios on October 24, 2026, followed by a discussion with its directors and producer. The film has also been nominated for two Wildscreen Panda Awards — the Independent Award and the Impact Award — and for the Investigative Award at the Jackson Wild Media Awards, often referred to as the Oscars of nature filmmaking. Following its London premiere, the film will tour the international festival circuit, likely screening at a festival near you, before its official worldwide release, when it will be made available for all to see.