A Phantom Song will screen on Thursday, Oct. 9, at 7 p.m., at The Strand Theater, 345 Main Street St., Rockland. A Q&A with the filmmakers, cast, and others to follow.

A Phantom Song combines the raw energy and emotional power of live theater to address the plight of those living in the shadows of the opiate crisis in the State Capital of Augusta, Maine.

"Filmed in Augusta at a long-abandoned theater in need of rehabilitation, first-time theatrical performers from the recovery, reentry, and unhoused community who participated in a developmental performance of an experimental blues/rock opera create an inspiring chorus of faces and voices that are often unseen and unheard to confront the bias and resistance that can lead to the destructive power of stigma," said Donna Daly.

Directed and produced by Maine filmmakers, theater producers, and advocates Michael Gorman and Donna Daly of Rockland-based The Forty Hour Club, the film evolved from the duo’s on-going project—“Chasing The New White Whale (Harpooning Addiction)”—a performance art and advocacy model dedicated to bringing awareness to the issue of opiate addiction in the commercial fishing community of New England and beyond.

The film also serves as a companion piece to “The Moby Dick Blues”—a major blues/rock opera written by playwright Michael Gorman about a commercial fishing community struggling with addiction. The opera, developed in Maine by The Forty Hour Club over the past six-years, recently had its world premiere in The Ellen Stewart Theater at the famed La MaMa Experimental Theater Club in New York City in June, 2025.

Runtime for A Phantom Song: 45 minutes.

Tickets and information at www.rocklandstrand.com or (207) 594-0070.