With his latest film for Alabama Public Television, filmmaker Robert Clem set himself what he regards as his most ambitious challenge: To get his arms around the story of Confederate Adm. Raphael Semmes.

The result, “Sink the Alabama,” premieres at 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 3, on Alabama Public Television. At 90 minutes long, it features interviews with historians and images from the historic record, but also uses actors to portray Semmes and other characters, re-enacting scenes as they might have occurred.

Clem is frank about his reason for adopting the structure: “Otherwise it would have been a slide show with narration,” he said.

The run of Semmes’ career was likewise unconventional. As a native of southern Maryland, he joined the U.S. Navy young. He had a respectable career, achieving some distinction in the Mexican War and capitalizing on it with a popular memoir. By the late 1850s, he’d landed in a role overseeing lighthouses, but the secession of Southern states and the rise of the Confederacy presented a choice, and new opportunities.