Filmed primarily at sea onboard an active fishing trawler, Ishmael is a blending of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick with a personal story of a battle with terminal illness.

Each and every year hundreds of people flock to New Bedford, MA in bleak mid-winter to partake in a celebration like none other. They read this single book out loud over the course of two full days without stopping. All of these people have one thing in common: they are obsessed with Moby Dick, the book that most call the Great American Novel.