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 WildScreen Festival, often called the Sundance of environmental filmmaking, in October 2026, where it has been nominated for the Independent Award and the Impact Award. The film has also been nominated in the Investigative category at the Jackson Wild Media Awards, which are known as the Oscars of nature filmmaking. Following its premiere, the film will tour the international film festival circuit — likely coming to a festival near you — before its official worldwide release, when it will be made available for all to see.