It’s difficult to make a sailing film. The conditions at sea are hard on cameras (and camera operators), there are a lot of technical things that filmmakers tend to get wrong, and the audience is relatively small for a commercial release. We’ve got a couple good ones and even more bad ones. There’s Wind, Adrift, Morning Light, Maiden, All is Lost, Deep Water, Mercy…I’ll let you decide which are which.
My point is, there are few enough of them that I always take notice when something new comes out. Women & The Wind didn’t only catch my attention, though. Hundreds of thousands of people tuned in to watch on social media as Kiana Weltzien and her ragtag crew—consisting of a newbie sailor and a camerawoman—spent a month working their wooden catamaran, Mara Noka, westward across the Atlantic.
Though at times suspenseful, the film is a gentle and meditative journey across the ocean, reminiscent of a bygone era of sailing. The dreamy, nostalgic cinematography sets the scene, but it’s the low-tech, barebores adventure of a few young people with a big dream that really feels like something plucked straight from yesteryear.
Another thing from yesteryear? Their safety standards. Viewers beware, there are few life jackets or tethers in the film. (Before the emails start pouring in: this review does not constitute an endorsement from SAIL of the laissez faire approach.) And in case you were planning to watch it in mixed company, one more warning that there is also quite a lot of nudity. It’s not graphic, but I also wouldn’t put it on for youth sailors waiting out a rain delay.
The boat, a Wharram Narai MKI from the 1970s, is a bit of a wreck from the start. Despite surviving many bluewater miles with Kiana alone aboard, there was work to be done before she felt she could risk other people’s lives on it. In fact, the decision to sail with others at all was a somewhat difficult one for her.
Kiana’s young adulthood had been driven by one goal: work as hard as she possibly could so that she could stop working as soon as she possibly could. But things don’t always go to plan, and after a few years in the rat race, she defected from city life and learned to sail with a mentor aboard another Wharram cat.
“I had this list of what I’d want in a boat of my own, and it was basically just the boat he already had,” Kiana says. “I wanted something so specific that I figured I didn’t have to worry about actually finding it.” But the world has a funny way of giving us what we need, and Mara Noka was right around the corner.
After numerous passages, Kiana was struck by the pollution she encountered even in the most remote parts of the ocean. “Personally, the motivation for making this film came from witnessing the reality of ocean plastic pollution during my first Atlantic crossing, and that its effects float on well beyond our shores. I wanted to take on that voyage again, but this time I wanted to bring along a team,” she says.
“The North Atlantic also provides the perfect environment for a very intense and spiritual journey, as that stretch of ocean can quickly become hostile. I knew these elements, mixed with a women-only crew aboard a simple wooden craft, would provide the perfect ingredients for an engaging and captivating film. Though the focus for my initial vision of the film’s message changed, as it was difficult to survive storms and capture imagery of trash at sea at the same time, the essence still remained the same.”
Equal parts art and adventure, the film is a love letter to the ocean and an homage to the relationship that people have with the sea, for better or worse. Kiana says she wants it to, “evoke a desire in the viewer to follow their gut, adventure throughout this world, and become more conscious of how some of our smallest decisions can have a great impact on our own lives and the planet.”
In the wake of the enormous reaction from the community, Kiana has started the Women & The Wind Foundation, which aims to support other young women with environmentally-driven adventures, particularly those that are unorthodox enough to struggle with fundraising or insurance. 50% of proceeds from the film will go to the fund, and she hopes to eventually incorporate a mentorship program as well.
The film was released digitally on January 1. Visit womenandthewind.com to watch or learn more about the project.
January/February 2026
