Before Aaron Carotta started his attempt to break the Guinness World Record for longest solo canoe or kayak journey, he didn’t even own a canoe. This unassuming start would end 233 days and more than 5,000 miles later in the Atlantic Ocean. Finding the Current is Carotta’s firsthand account of this remarkable journey. The film is composed of an iPhone video diary Carotta shot himself and footage from Austin Graham, a cameraman who joined him more than 100 days into the trip.
I can’t help but wish a more experienced documentary filmmaker had been in charge of this project. Technically, there are a few hiccups, most notably with sound. The iPhone audio is perhaps unavoidably garbled, but at times, even the voice-over narration is difficult to understand. The bigger issue, however, is with narrative. For all of the time we spend with Carotta, the film isn’t really concerned with what brought him to his ‘midlife canoe crisis.’ A backstory that involves cancer, a reality television career as ‘Adventure Aaron’ and an ill-fated marriage feels like enough for its own film, but it accounts for maybe 10 minutes of Finding the Current’s runtime. It jumps right to the lessons Carotta learned, glossing over the questions and crises that necessitated them.
But as a story of human perseverance and remarkable kindness, the film shines. The journey was a tremendous undertaking, and Carotta rightly acknowledges that it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of more experienced paddlers, fishermen and other strangers he met along the way. It’s an inspiring story and one worth telling.
SHOULD YOU SEE IT? Yes, it’s a remarkable story.— S.W.
