On a cold, stormy night in 1953, a young French family was driving home to Rochefort after visiting relatives near Nantes. Coming around a turn, their car swerved to avoid a bicyclist and overturned in a canal. The car’s driver died at the scene, but his wife and three-year-old daughter were rescued and survived. They were saved by a U.S. soldier who was returning home from his army base and happened upon the accident.

The soldier never spoke of the incident again - not even to his own children. It was not until after his death that his son, filmmaker John McDonald, discovered evidence of his father’s heroic act. Almost Lost is an investigative feature documentary following McDonald’s journey to France in search of the mother and child who survived. 

In 2010, while rummaging through some military footlockers in his parents’ basement, 
McDonald discovers a letter of commendation from the base commander as well as an article about the incident in a military newspaper. Curious about what happened to the survivors, he spends months searching for more information, even enlisting the help of private investigators, but hits a dead end. 

Then in 2024, after attending a screening in Bordeaux, McDonald takes a side trip to La Rochelle, the town where his family lived for three years. While visiting the area, he decides to renew his quest to retrace the past and find the accident’s survivors. It takes two more visits and hundreds of miles traveling through western France, but McDonald eventually connects the dots that lead him to the survivors’ families. In the process, he learns how his father’s selfless actions altered the trajectory of these families’ lives - and their family tree. 

Told through contemporary footage and vintage family photos and film, Almost Lost uncovers hidden histories and unspoken memories, exploring how a single act of humanity can connect strangers in unexpected ways.