“76 Days Adrift” — “a profoundly immersive documentary that plunges you into the heart of one man’s extraordinary survival story” — will be shown at Warwick Cinemas starting Thursday night and throughout the weekend.
The five showings will be at 7 p.m. April 24-27, with an additional 2 p.m. matinee showing April 27. After the credits roll, there will also be question-and-answer sessions with Robert Sennott, executive producer.
The film is based on Steven Callahan’s New York Times bestseller “Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea,” which recounts the night of Feb. 4, 1982 when “a catastrophic collision with a whale left his boat sinking in the dead of night,” which leads to his 76 day journey traveling across the Atlantic in his inflatable raft.
Sennott actually went to high school with Callahan at Dover Sherborn, and the two ran track together. Sennott said Callahan became “completely smitten with sailing” when he was 12 because his Boy Scout troop leader had taken the group sailing.
“From that day forward, he was all in on a marine life,” Sennott said.
Sennott said “76 Days Adrift” is “a perfect match for the Marblehead community at large.”
“When people see the film, they get a lot out of it. It’s just a wonderful piece of art,” he said. “Communities, especially sailing communities, really love this film. It’s just a really good life lesson for people to see.”
He added that the major theme behind this film is to “never give up.”
“There’s a major quote in the film, my identical twin brother Rick alerted me to it. Steve is quoted saying, “Quite often, the solution to the problem can be found in the problem.” And that’s what he does,” Sennott said. “He has these incredible problem-solving skills. He just tackles one crisis after another, just takes care of them, solves them.
“He’s brilliant at problem solving, and he never gives up. He has this wonderful font of hope and perseverance that people so admire when they watch it.”
When asked why Sennott chose to host Q+As and showings of “76 Days Adrift” at the Warwick in Marblehead, he laughed and chose to give a rather candid answer.
“Harold (Blank) is an owner of the cinema, and he owns another half a dozen theaters around New England. We first screened at one of his theaters in Mystic, Connecticut, and we had a three-day run there that was sold out tighter than a drum – and Harold couldn’t get over it,” Sennott said. “So he goes, ‘Rob, I want you to do all my theaters. We’re gonna mow ‘em down one at a time.’ I said, ‘Well, Harold, I would love to do the Warwick.’ And he goes, ‘Why?’ And I go, ‘Well, because my urologist lives in Marblehead, and I love my urologist.’
“I’m psyched about coming up to Marblehead. I just look forward to meeting people there.”
One word Sennott repeatedly used to describe this film was “heartwarming.”
“Just from a filmmaker’s perspective, I don’t know if we’re going to make any money on this film, but from a social perspective, the profits are off the charts,” Sennott said. “This is parabolic how much people love this film, and I guarantee you the people of Marblehead are going to dig this film for a lot of reasons.”
