In 2014, I met Angelo, a former petty officer who had transitioned to a freelance career as a nautical journalist after several years in the Italian Navy. Angelo asked if I would be interested in documenting one of the Navy’s patrol missions in the Mediterranean, rescuing migrants attempting to reach European shores from Africa. He submitted an official request to his former colleagues, but weeks passed without a response. Then, six months later, we received a call from the Italian Navy’s General Staff; if we were still interested, we needed to be in Lampedusa—a small island in the Mediterranean—by 6 a.m. the next morning. Hours later, with no preparation for what we were about to embark on, Angelo, Andrea—the second operator—and I were on a flight to Palermo, where we would catch a small twin-engine plane to Lampedusa. Aboard the tiny plane, Angelo struck up a conversation with a young Black man sitting next to him. Agos Kidane, as he introduced himself, was a cultural mediator hired by the Navy to facilitate migrant rescue operations. I turned to my colleagues, exclaiming, “Here’s our story—this is our man!” Serendipitously, we had sat next to the future protagonist of our film. The short documentary that came out of this experience, taught me the true meaning of “cinéma vérité”. Mission was a 2016 official selection of New York Short Film Festival, Docfest in Holland, and AS Film Festival in Rome.