Solo sailor Steve Callahan set out in 1982 from the Canary Islands in a 21-foot sloop built with his own hands. In the dead of night, his boat was terminally struck by a whale.

It would be by his own hands and ingenuity he would survive the next 76 days drifting in the Atlantic in a 5½-foot inflatable raft with only a handful of emergency supplies he managed to salvage from his sinking vessel.

Callahan lived on little more than a pint of water a day and managed to capture and eat raw fish as they trailed along eating barnacles attached to his raft, and also a few birds that landed on one of the few places they could miles and miles from land.

“He caught I think nine dorado, a couple of small triggerfish, and three birds that landed on top of his raft and ate them too — all raw. As he said in the movie, he was hoping the birds were going to taste different, but they basically tasted like fish,” said Robert Sennott, producer of the new documentary “76 Days Adrift.” The film is based on Callahan’s 1986 memoir, “Adrift: Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea,” and Sennott is bringing the film to Bend for a Feb. 27 screening of the film at Volcanic Theatre Pub.

Sennott was high school classmates with Callahan, and has known him for over 50 years.

Sennott was not aware Callahan had been missing until he was found, following the story from the day Callahan was saved and made front-page news in The Boston Globe. A couple of months later, Sennott saw him on “The Tonight Show” and interviews with Johnny Carson.

Today, Callahan lives near Bar Harbor, Maine, where the filmmakers recorded 22 hours of interviews with him. His survival expertise was tapped by filmmaker Ang Lee for the film “Life of Pi,” about a young man stranded on a lifeboat with a tiger, and Lee served as an executive producer for “76 Days Adrift.”

The film premiered last year at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, and has won a number of awards on the film festival circuit, with a light number of other screenings, such as the one in Bend.

Working on and promoting the movie has been a “wonderful experience,” Sennott said. “The inspiration that’s thrown off from the film is really, really powerful if you want to witness some perseverance and hope.”

Hope and perseverance are qualities the country and its citizens could use right about now, Sennott said.

“That’s what’s attractive to me (about) this film. It shows you can get through a lot if you really apply yourself.”

If You Go

What: “76 Days Adrift” documentary screening

When: 7 p.m. (6 p.m. doors) Feb. 27

Where: Volcanic Theatre Pub, 70 SW Century Drive, Bend

Cost: $10

Contact: volcanictheatre.com