Missing at Sea

We set off for North Macedonia in search of a story about what it takes to survive against the elements and unimaginable odds, about the scope of human strength and resilience. What we found was something even deeper – a story that told us that surviving has no beginning and end but is a thing, steeped in memory and loss, that continues to define us long after the threat of danger has passed. I’ve spent more than twenty years as an investigative journalist and filmmaker but wanted this project to more fully explore the challenges of immersive, experiential first-person storytelling. I wanted to take the audience inside Ivan Gjorgievski’s mind and body over the course of 18 harrowing hours struggling to stay alive in the Aegean Sea. Using only natural light and camera gear that fit into a single backpack, our three-person crew traversed the mountains of Skopje, walked the beaches of Northeast Greece, and submerged ourselves in the same sea - inviting Ivan to tell his story in his way, balancing between the rigors of detailed remembering and the dangers of lingering with painful recollections.

Ivan survived not only because of his physical capabilities and ocean experience. He survived because he thinks and feels and processes information in a compartmentalized, purpose-driven way. He is alive today because he has always lived by way of an intense focus. As he battled waves and wind, and endured long terrifying hours of darkness and despair, he moved between moments when he had to think his way through challenges and moments when he had to shut down his thinking altogether and simply move his body in the roiling waters. His rescue was a triumph of will and spirit but it has come at a cost. His friend Martin remains missing, and two years after that fateful day, Ivan thinks and feels and processes each day what it means to carry on and to live with unanswered questions. I took my crew and cameras to meet him and to visit that beach and to try to imagine what it must have been like to be alone out there on that night. But I came home having been inside a reality I couldn’t have anticipated, and have tried to tell a story that stretches beyond the 18 perilous hours and toward what it means for Ivan to live the life that has come after his life was saved.