On August 1st, 2006, fourteen teenagers stepped aboard the Harvey Gamage, a 131 foot, gaff-rigged Schooner, took the helm, and sailed slowly toward the open sea.  For the following week, they navigated through hundreds of miles of Atlantic waters from Rockland, Maine to Boston, Massachusetts and learned to document their voyage on video. 

With modern convenience left behind, the young sailors worked together to combine brain and brawn in order to command the ship.   They did it all -- from steering the ship, to hauling heavy lines hand over hand to raise the massive sails, to hoisting the anchor – a grueling task that requires throwing their entire bodies into pumping an enormous hand-cranked winch in order to lift all 450 pounds of wrought iron from the ocean floor.  

The physical labors aboard the Gamage were colossal.  But for these teenagers, the ardors of sailing a massive schooner is a challenge they live for – literally. 

Each of these teens has overcome a fierce and personal battle with cancer.   Now in remission, they are boldly charting a new course.   As they push beyond the turbulent waters of their youth, they find that sailing restores confidence in a body that at some point during their childhood had abandoned them.  Armed with a new-found self-esteem -- and a video camera -- each sailor is poised to share their story and their message of hope with the world in a way that has never been seen before. 

Finding True North is a documentary film project that chronicles the personal journeys of these fourteen spirited adolescents.   As they sail through wind and weather, pitch dark nights and sun-dappled days, our cameras capture the true grit of these remarkable teens and the transformation that occurs when they turn the cameras on themselves to confront the world of their illness and recovery.  Through their own lens, they seek – and find -- a unique and powerful voice to shape their story. 

What transpires is a journey steeped in discovery as much as it recovery.  Through their raw, humorous, and poignant self-portraits, embellished with home video of their “life on land,” we enter the world of these survivors and explore their darkest fears and brightest hopes. 

To be produced by award-winning documentary filmmaker, Gianna Savoie, in association with the non-profit organization, Barefoot Workshops, Finding True North reaches beyond traditional documentary by empowering the teens to film themselves and each other.  It is not a film about them, but a film by them.  And through their vivid first-person perspective, we are immediately drawn into the reality of what it is to be a teenage cancer survivor.   It is a film that celebrates a purposeful life through the fresh, honest voice of the adolescent.