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Logline

Row of Life is a feature documentary that follows Angela Madsen, a former Marine, 3x Paralympian, and renowned ocean rower, on her attempt to solo row unsupported from LA to Hawaii. Row of Life captures the year before the row and her preparation alongside her wife as well as the journey from LA to Hawaii – up until they unexpectedly lose contact with her.

Synopsis

Angela Madsen’s life reads like a parable of resilience; beginning with the backstory of her childhood as a closeted gay woman, to a botched surgery during her time in the Marine Corps that left her paralyzed and homeless, to her remarkable rise to adaptive sports superstar as a 3x Paralympian and 14x Guinness World Record holder, and finally to her attempt to row across the Pacific Ocean alone.

Row of Life opens with Angela’s incredible story and bond to her wife, Deb, as they prepare for her final ocean crossing. In April 2020, Angela set off solo and unassisted in her 20’ ocean rowing boat, Row of Life, affixed with everything needed to be self-reliant for 100 days, across 2,500 miles of open ocean, from Los Angeles to Hawaii.

If she achieved this, Angela, at 60, would’ve been the oldest woman, first openly queer athlete, and only paraplegic to ever do so. Despite having already rowed every ocean, this was Angela’s most ambitious goal yet, and she intended to retire from ocean-rowing once completed.

Except Angela never made it.
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Soraya Simi — Director
Soraya Simi is a documentary filmmaker, photographer, and writer. Originally from Tucson, Arizona, she moved to California to attend USC’s film school. She directed multiple award-winning documentaries including her poetic thesis film Salt Water, and her sailing documentary Where the Water Takes Us. She’s produced high-level branded content short films and commercials, and most recently is in development for a crime docu-series drama based in her hometown. Row of Life, however, is by far the most significant story Soraya has worked on, learning first-hand the complexity of a close subject-director relationship, and how the stakes in non-fiction storytelling are not imagined, but very real. She believes wholeheartedly in the profound and necessary capacity for stories to heal hearts, open minds, and immortalize lessons. Soraya gravitates toward narratives that delve into resilience, our human relationship to nature, and achievement against all odds.

Nicholas Weissman — Producer
Weissman is an Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker based in Los Angeles. His work has been featured across a variety of outlets including The New Yorker, The New York Times, PBS, HBO, and the National Geographic Channel. His first independent film, The Minutemen, about vigilantes along the U.S. – Mexico border, won the Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival. In 2013, he received an Emmy for A Boy Helps a Town Heal, a Sports Illustrated film about the Newtown shooting and in 2014, he produced Am I Next, a documentary about a teenager navigating protests on the streets of Ferguson for Time Magazine. For Ahekeem (PBS), a feature profiling the juvenile justice system in St. Louis, debuted at the 2017 Berlinale Film Festival followed by the Tribeca Film Festival, AFI Docs, Hot Docs, and over 50 other festivals worldwide receiving 7 Best Documentary awards. His most recent feature, Havana Libre, about Cuban surfers headlined Big Sky Film Festival this year. Weissman is an active member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, Video Consortium, and is a Sundance Producing Fellow.

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Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.