Very few people are brave enough to play the long game, to commit to a seemingly impossible goal without precedent, guarantees, or roadmaps, to sacrifice everything, to endure suffering, doubt and pain, and to keep going even when the whole world says stop. Maybe that’s why those who are brave enough often find each other, the way big wave surfer Maya Gabeira and documentarian Stephanie Johnes found each other, and despite great adversity, ultimately set a world record and made an award winning film: Maya and the Wave.

Maya and the Wave is the best film I’ve seen all year. After I saw it the first time at the Nantucket Film Festival, I went right back and saw it again.

It’s the story of a woman fighting through unimaginable odds to achieve her dream. It’s about obsession, risk, doubt, drive and respecting nature’s power. It’s about the discrimination women face when they dare to enter spaces dominated by men, and their often unseen vulnerability and fear. It made me gasp out loud and cover my eyes. It made me cry, and it reminded me how supremely documentaries about athletes capture the audacity of the human spirit.

American documentarian Stephanie Johnes met the Brazilian big wave surfer Maya Gabeira in 2012, after Johnes wrapped cinematography for the film Venus and Serena.

Johnes was looking for a new project, a film about a female athlete chasing a dream. Gabeira was 26, winning surf contests and sponsored by Red Bull. She was used to being photographed and agreed to let Johnes film her. Traveling together to Pasquales, Mexico, where Johnes would shoot Gabeira for the first time, they had no idea what was to come, whether they would uncover a story worth telling, or how long it would take. The fact that they did it anyway is part of what makes Maya and the Wave so remarkable. This is not a story of mere mortals, it could only be by and about people bolder, more tenacious and idealistic than most.

Over ten difficult years, full of highs and lows, they charted a course through the monster surf that would shock the industry, change their lives and become Maya and the Wave. 

Given her accomplishments, the whole world should know Maya Gabeira. In 2018 she surfed the highest wave ever by a woman at Praia do Norte in Nazaré, Portugal, despite having survived a near death accident, multiple surgeries, gender discrimination and relentless pressure to quit. Two years later she broke her own world record when she successfully rode a 73.5 foot wave — a world record which still stands. But the whole world does not know her name. In fact, this may be the first time you’ve heard it. Candidly captured in Maya and the Wave, the entrenched sexism of the surf industry created barriers for Gabeira again and again and again. Bias and inequity, Johnes found, is as relentless in this male-dominated sport as waves crashing on the beach in Nazaré.

Johnes’ cinema verite approach requires durational interaction with her subjects. She moved to Nazaré to be close to Gabeira as she fought to recover from her injuries and find the courage and strength to conquer a record breaking wave. The intimacy of Johnes’ filmmaking style leads to exceptional moments: Maya opening up about her anger at being dropped by Red Bull after her accident; curling up on the couch in her parent’s home after surgery #1, sweating through tears on the exercise bike after surgery #2, finding the courage to try again after her mentor and training partner told her to give up and finding a doctor who would agree to a risky surgery #3. Maya realizing her surf partner who some believe was responsible for her almost dying, went back out to surf after watching her leave in an ambulance, because the waves were too good to miss.

You might imagine that a person brave enough to surf waves taller than a 7 story building or two school buses stacked end to end would be hard edged, insane or very cocky. Some of the male surfers in Johnes’ film come across that way. They balked at the idea of a woman surfing the big waves they were out to master. They attacked her when she got injured trying. But Gabeira, whose genuine, supportive family plays an important role in the film, is not afraid to be vulnerable. She openly discusses her fears, admitting early on in the film that if it wasn’t scary she probably wouldn’t do it.

She’s human, even though she accomplishes super-human feats. And that’s what makes the film work.

If you are lucky enough to catch a screening accompanied by a Q&A you will hear more about the arduous years leading up to the film’s release. You may be surprised as the end result flows naturally, lyrically together. It’s often that way with art – the smooth, cohesive beauty of the final piece belies the agony of the ups and downs involved in making it.

The courage of both Maya Gabeira and Stephanie Johnes will have your heart beating faster when you leave the theater. It will have you believing you can achieve your impossible dream. Their determination in the face of overwhelming obstacles should be an inspiration for all who see it, especially the women and girls who dream big dreams no matter how high the wall of water may seem before them.

Maya and the Wave is playing at the Angelika Film Center Village East through September 19.

Check the website for additional opportunities to see the film.

* Hero Image Photo: Soraya Simi