Maidentrip

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. As others have mentioned this movie is about the maturing of a young teenager into a young woman through her sailing journey. What I've enjoyed most about this film is the genuine aspect of her journey, she wasn't handed a million dollar sailing yacht with enough tech to sail itself around the world. Laura and her father picked up a relatively inexpensive and broken down boat and fixed it up themselves. At her launch there was only a handful of people seeing her off and her own mother didn't make it. There was no huge fanfare and you had the feeling that the general public never thought she would make it. Laura didn't have a camera crew or support boats following her around. The at sea filming was done by herself and very insightful as to what was going through her head at various stages of the journey.

This film is a coming of age film and challenges us to rethink what is possible when we set our minds to a particular task.

I've watched the Abby Sunderland and just couldn't compare the two. This film was inspiring as it was a great story.

I actually watched this reluctantly because someone wanted to see it, and ended up loving it. Not for the plot - there really is no plot (documentaries do that at times) except for her voyage, and the events leading up to it. To me it was just amazing that a young girl could do such an adventure alone, while others of her age were much more worried about how many followers they had on Twitter.

Much of the photography sucks (not like a cell phone is a real professional camera) - but that also adds to the feeling of realism, and pushes home the fact that there were no followers, no camera crews around - she was totally on her own. Unlike so many of the pseudo-documentaries this one is not filled with fake drama.

I'm with the guy that says something isn't right . . . . It doesn't add up; and quite frankly, I found the film too effervescent. I think there's something fishy going on, and just meeting people on an island, making friends with a weird couple. Nah. It smells rigged (pun). She's arrogant, and yes, spoiled or something akin to it. I found her annoying. Was glad to see her sailing off into the sunset. Good riddance, Brat!

Maidentrip is a beautiful documentary about Laura Dekker's year and a half voyage to be the youngest person ever to sail around the world. Dekker, who is Dutch, set sail from Gibraltar in 2010 and made the journey in a year and half, finishing a few months after her 16th birthday. Her route took her to St. Martins, Panama, the Galapagos Islands, Austrailia, the Cape of Good Hope, and back to St. Martins.

This movie is amazing first because of the premise--that a girl, 14, would even try such an amazing task. We learn that Laura is no ordinary girl--from an early age she loved sailing, and in fact would sail all over Holland by herself by the age of 10. In 2009, only 13 years old, she sailed across the English Channel from Holland and back by herself. When it became known that she intended to sail around the world, Dutch authorities attempted to remove her from her father's custody to keep her from making the trip. After a court victory, the way was cleared for her.

As we follow Laura on her journey, what we realize is that, however young she is, this is a remarkable person with a vision. The trip becomes something of a work of art--she photographs it all herself-- and so is really a sort of view of the entire world through her lens. Additionally, we get to know a story of her tumultuous past and how her voyage potentially can liberate her, and the story is compelling. Laura is involved in an immense but joyful struggle to see the world, show us her experience, and even fully create herself as a person. It is an amazing story.

Just saw this at Hot Docs in Toronto last night. If you want to know what sailing around the world is like, this is the movie for you. Not so long ago, we didn't have the technology to make filming a journey like this so easy. We are shown a pretty complete set of film documenting the various legs of the journey, from sunny becalmed days, to hair raising stormy seas rounding South Africa.

I guess like everyone I wondered how someone so young could make such a journey. We follow the back story of Laura's life as she spends her first 5 years at sea around New Zealand and as a very young girl helping her single dad restore their boat, the Guppy. When you see her on the boat sailing, you immediately grasp that this person is at one with the boat and with the sea and any doubts disappear. The boat is exactly made to order, everything in its place, strong, simple. Restoring and basically rebuilding the boat from scratch was probably the best thing for someone undertaking such a journey. You must be totally aware of absolutely everything on a boat, how it works, and how to repair it.

This doc reminded me of a film I saw about the Golden Globe race in 1968, called Deep Water. Laura refers to Bernard Moitessier and how he fell in love with the sailing and forgot about the race he was on, continuing on into the south pacific.

The animation sequences showing the path of the boat on various charts of the world are very imaginatively done, you get a real sense of the journey. What a way to see our beautiful planet and all the various life forms.