Produced in partnership with Tell Us GmbH

Branded Documentary | Flagship Film | Story Collection | Nonprofit

Gulf to goat

A story about endurance, camaraderie, and charity.

The Challenge

Twenty-two days. Nearly 1,200 miles. A group of Naval Academy graduates from the year 1975, most of them now in their seventies, pedaling from the Gulf Coast of Florida to the goat statue at Annapolis to celebrate their 50th reunion and raise money for causes tied directly to their classmates' lives. The story was already remarkable. The challenge was capturing it without turning it into a highlight reel.

The approach

We joined the ride in Savannah, Georgia, embedded with the group for the duration. Off days became interview days, conversations with riders about what brought them here, what they were carrying, what fifty years of service and friendship actually looks like in a person's face. Riding days meant long lenses out of a moving car, an Osmo mounted to the exterior and controlled remotely, drone footage over open road. Intimate and mobile. Built to disappear into the ride rather than interrupt it.

Then a fireside conversation with the Emily Whitehead Foundation, three cameras around a panel built to generate real awareness for childhood cancer research.

We kept things intimate and authentic. These weren't athletes performing for a camera. They were people doing something meaningful and we followed them into it.

The proof

Eleven short films built for social, each one carrying an individual rider's story. Footage that anchored a fourteen minute documentary short and a full trailer. And at the end of twenty-two days and nearly 1,200 miles, the riders and the community around them raised just under $165,000 for five charitable foundations, each one tied to a classmate's life.

That number didn't come from a campaign. It came from people watching these videos and feeling something true.