Row of Life

Row of Life 💖, documentary, dir. Soraya Simi, 2025, USA, 82 min.
Tuesday, June 24, 2025, 3:30 pm, Roxie Theater
also available in the Digital Screening Room, June 23 to 30, 2025

Row of Life

Angela Madsen (pictured, right) was a Marine who had a serious back injury, but due to a serious medical misstep, the surgery meant to help her, made her a paraplegic instead. Her response was to channel all the determination that had marked her whole life into a specific passion: ocean rowing. I’ve never rowed a boat on anything much bigger than a municipal pond, but some people row across whole oceans. Angela had rowed across the Atlantic, once across the Indian Ocean, once around Great Britain, and many other “just for the sake of doing it” rows, often taking two or three months or more. She decided she wanted to sail across the Pacific, from California to Hawaii. After a failed attempt several years prior, she had saved up enough money to make a second go of it. Sadly, we know that she only made it about halfway.

Through all of this, Angela had her wife Deb by her side. Deb knew the risks, but she also knew that Angela would never be happy if she didn’t try to reach that goal, rowing up to Diamond Head, across that finish line, and it was important to her that the journey be documented in film. She had become a vigorous advocate for disability justice, and wanted to show that, with a little knowledge, a little training, and the will to see it through, you can work for any goal you set in life.

It’s a powerful portrait of resilience, with the botched surgery only the beginning of a long period of misfortune, turned around only by her passion (bordering on downright obsession) for rowing. It’s a must see.

• IMDb • trailer • official website: RowOfLifeFilm.com •