Maiden - Review

Maiden

In the documentary “Maiden” we are quickly introduced to Tracy Edwards as a young girl. Even then she obviously a highly intelligent British girl who was a restless vagabond malcontent who had a history by her loving mother of “being unable to finish anything”. Fast forward a decade later somewhere in Greece at the age of 22 she literally had the most random chance encounters one could hardly ever imagine by being in the presence of the then King Hussain of Jordan. He cordially and friendly engaged in her in respectful conversation that proceeded for him to encourage her to never give up on your dreams,………..never at all costs.

That conversation resulted in that very moment of Edwards to obsessively spend the next 4 years of her young life preparing, raising money, repairing her second hand 58 foot aluminum-hulled yacht and eventually selecting the very first all-female crew in history to compete in the 1989 Whitbread Round the World Race. A grueling and highly dangerous yachting competition that covers 33,000 miles that lasts nine months. And you ask, what was Tracey Edwards’s prior sailing experience at that point to taking on such a monumental perilous task? She was a cook on a boat for several months.

REVIEW: This is as brilliant film and an even greater emotionally moving and inspiring story you will ever see…………EVER. Its directorial brilliance lies in its ability in the running time of 1:37 minutes to show initially the sexism she endured daily but also how she meticulously forged ahead day after day. Always kept inching a little bit more forward to her goal by plodding, pushing and being a force of determined nature to sailing her ship. And if the financial backing naysayers were not enough to deter her, she also persevered through a gauntlet of negative press and coverage, tons of maligning sexist jokes and some even going as far to outright predict by then highly experienced male sailors that Tracey and her entire crew would certainly all be lost at sea in the first 30 day.

The other side of the brilliance of this film and the area I found most compelling was through both the stunning archival footage and the many compelling interviews by Edward’s and her amazing “Maiden” crew recounting all of the harrowing and stressful circumstances they found themselves. Including some of the in the moment gutsy tactical decisions they made with Tracey as the Skipper and Navigator and a crew who had no experience with this daunting type of sailing to know if they were wrong or not.

One such decision that stood out involved the second leg of the race from Uruguay to Australia. Typically heading eastward off the coast of South Africa most experienced sailors would take the more northern route to Australia. Tracey and her crew decided to take the more southern route closer to the continent of Antarctic that had the greater sustained winds. It also had the roughest and most unpredictable seas with the highly dangerous increased possibility of running into an iceberg at night.

This truly fabulous documentary reminded me in some ways as the “Apollo 11” documentary did that the ocean just like deep space will always be trying to kill you. And as with space when the land disappears behind you………….you are all alone with no one to rescue you... But if you can conquer it, dare I say even master it, the experience of surviving the journey (as the women testified to) was like having some type of deeper rebirth of their spirits. A rebirth that has never left them and is clearly still with them today.

Most of you will never heard of their names before this film. That’s’ a shame.  But the crew of Mandy Swan Neal; Mikaela Von Koskull; Claire Warren; Tanja Visser; Tracy Edwards MBE; Sally Hunter; Nancy Harris; Marie-Claude Kieffer Jeni Mundy; Jo Gooding and Sarah Davies were as wickedly determined, focused, driven and fearless as any men could have been. And from my perspective I would venture to say that in 1989 I believe these 11 brave women were more focused and determined than then their male counter parts.

If you want to see something that will lift your spirits then you absolutely must see “Maiden” in the theater. Not for some footnote feminist achievement, but for the triumph of the human spirit to succeed at all costs.

4.00 Stars