The San Luis Obispo International Film Festival has given SLO Review the opportunity to preview some of the narrative and documentary films on the festival’s April 24-29, 2025 program schedule. Follow the links to purchase tickets to see these notable films for yourself.
Tackling the Pacific
From its very first moments, Row of Life is clearly directed by an expert storyteller in director Soraya Simi.
The documentary film begins with captivating visuals—closeups of a boat, Row of Life, soon joined by the sound of birds and ocean, with accompanying emotion-evoking music.
The camera pans out to an unknown island covered in palm trees, then cuts to a closeup of a rower, presumably in the Pacific Ocean off California.
That is our introduction to the ultra-athlete rower, Angela Madsen, who, during the course of her life, served in the United States Marine Corps, competed in multiple paralympics games, and set records in rowing, including becoming the first woman with a disability to row across the Atlantic and one of two women to row across the Indian Ocean.
Simi brings all of Madsen’s facets to life, painting a full picture of a person while educating the audience in rowing jargon so we can keep up.”
Madsen was initially an able-bodied competitive athlete when she served in the Marine Corps, but while playing on the women’s all Marine Corps basketball team, she tripped and another player fell on her, feet first into her lower back, rupturing two discs. That, followed by a botched surgery, eventually led to her becoming paraplegic.
As a result, she battled demons of depression, losing her home and living in a state of homelessness before picking up the pieces of her life.
“I don’t want to be defeated by this or by anything,” she says.
She’s candid and driven. She is single-minded in setting and reaching her goals and all-inclusive in her desire to inspire others to reach their goals, too.
Madsen doesn’t mince her words or her identity. She’s paraplegic. She’s gay and happily married to her wife, Deb. She will turn 60 while tackling yet another goal, which is to row across the Pacific Ocean from California to Hawaii. That adventure is at the core of this film.
Madsen’s first attempt to row across the Pacific was in 2013 beginning off Santa Cruz, California, but gale-force winds and a knee injury ended that voyage with a US Coast Guard rescue.
Seven years later in 2020, she again set out to tackle the Pacific.
Simi brings all of Madsen’s facets to life through interviews with her, Deb, friends, family, rowing experts, and news broadcasters, painting a full picture of a person while educating the audience in rowing jargon so we can keep up.
For anyone unaware of the outcome of Madsen’s second row across the Pacific, it will not be revealed here. And in the end, it’s not just those paraplegic folks who will be inspired by Madsen’s story, but all of us.
“There is no such thing as can’t—anyone is capable of achieving goals they set for themselves,” Madsen says.
Editor’s Note: Row of Life (USA, run time 82 minutes, not rated, in English) screens at the SLO International Film Festival on April 26, 27, and 28*. *Screening with open captions.