Maiden

After being reluctantly dragged to this movie by my spouse, I found myself surprising interested in a sailing race I would normally consider the silly pursuit of the idle wealthy. I came to care whether the female crew succeeded in its unlikely quest.

The movie is well worth seeing even if you know or care nothing about around-the-world sailing.

This is a film that doesn't leave you: the images of gigantic waves and ice bergs and superhuman levels of courage and endurance are hard to process. If it were a work of fiction you would dismiss it as Hollywood hype: but it's not, it really happened and you are with them in the boat to watch their epic achievements. Just see it.

Greetings again from the darkness. Thanks to Ron Shelton's BULL DURHAM (1988), a favorite sports phrase emerged: 'announcing one's presence with authority'. Perhaps no better phrase exists to describe Tracy Edwards at the 1989 Whitbread Round the World Race. The 24 year old Edwards was the skipper-navigator of the first all-women crew to compete in the race ... a grueling every-three-years event where yachts are sailed around the world in multiple stages/legs.

Director Alex Holmes takes us back to Ms. Edwards' childhood. We see home movies, interviews with friends, and hear stories to prove she wasn't the easiest child to raise. Maybe too much time is devoted to this section, but it picks up when we get to adult Tracy's story about how she was first attracted to the race and got involved as a cook on one of the vessels. She talks about being treated like a servant by the crew and how that inspired her idea to assemble an all-woman crew and race their own boat.

The interviews include other skippers (men, of course), the journalists who covered the race (men, of course), and the crew members from the Maiden. We see them today, and have the "then" photos and clips to gain an appreciation of the 30 years that have passed. We hear that "being girls is like being disabled in the sailing world", and one can sense the attitude (even today) of the competitors.

The race covers 33,000 nautical miles, but Ms. Edwards' historic voyage started long before they set sail. She speaks to the difficulty of fundraising - two years of almost no money, and how Jordan's King Hussein not only inspired her, but also assisted. A second-hand boat at a reduced cost put the crew to work on rehabilitation, and this 'sweat equity' likely made them more determined than ever.

"The probability of not making it is high." Self-doubt and insecurities bubbled up. Once the race got underway, the women were a team. Terrific archival footage puts us right there with the crew - massive waves, ice on the sails, incredible cold and wind. These obstacles from nature care not if the crew is man or woman. Ms. Edwards' leadership is on full display during the various legs of the race. It's clear by the end that they have gained respect of those who doubted them, and the warm reception proves how strong their fan base was. It's certainly not the first sports movie featuring underdogs. In fact, the Jamaican bobsled team is a comparison that comes to mind as a group of dedicated competitors given little chance to succeed by those 'in the know'. Here's hoping the inevitable Hollywood dramatization never occurs, as no actor could tell it better than those who performed the work and raced the race.

"Maiden" (2018 release; 97 min.) is a documentary about the all-female crew of the Maiden in the Whitbread Round the World sailing competition. As the movie opens, it is "September 2, 1989, Southampton", the day that the Whitbread race begins, and we get to know Tracy Edwards, the 27 year old skipper of the Maiden. We then go back in time to Tracey's upbringing, where her parents instill a sense of determination in her. It eventually leads her to want to compete in the Whitbread race, and in 1986 she announces her intent to do the 1989 race with an all-female crew... At this point we are 10 min. into the movie.

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from Alex Holmes. Holmes one the one hand uses the ample archive video and TV footage from that era, and also interviews the 12 member crew of the Maiden, who all look back to what took place in the late 80s with a sense of pride and amazement. Tracy Edwards makes a great subject matter and interviewee. When you see this young woman not only have the dream of doing this, and then actually DOING it albeit not without problems and challenges, you feel so inspired. (One of the biggest challenge turned out to be finding a sponsor for the boat: Edwards approached literally hundreds and hundreds of companies, and NOT ONE SINGLE company was interested in stepping up. How she managed this financially is explained in the film.) There is an amazing amount of footage from on the ship itself, and it raised the hairs on my arms as you see them sailing on the Southern oceans. I am going on record already to predict that "Maiden" will get an Oscar nomination for BEst Directory early next year.

I had seen the trailer for "Maiden" and couldn't wait to see it. The film opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. The Sunday early evening screening where I saw this at was attended poorly (5 people in total). That's a darn shame. Hopefully this film can find a much deserved wider audience as it launches on other platforms. If you like a good documentary whose timing in today's climate of gender equality is perfect, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater, on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

Maiden (2018) is a documentary directed by Alex Holmes.

It stars Tracy Edwards, who, in 1989, skippered the first all-female crew in the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race. At the time, "everyone knew" that women didn't belong in competitive yacht racing. Yes--they could sometimes be cooks on long races, but not sailors.

It seems Neanderthal now, but 30 years ago it was a true restriction.

Edwards didn't only skipper the ship. Before then, she managed to obtain a yacht and find a crew. During the grueling race, she was also the navigator.

Edwards was a determined, capable sailor. However, she didn't always play well with others. We learn this from her own words, as well as from two of her crew members--Jeni Mundy and Mikaela Von Koskull.

Normally, I avoid movies about people who climb dangerous mountains or perform other dangerous tasks for thrills and glory. Not so in this case. Yachtsmen thought women couldn't race, and the all-woman crew thought they could. This was a true step forward for gender equality, and deserves to be applauded as such.

We saw this film at Rochester's excellent Little Theatre. Because of the footage of the yacht in action, this is a movie that should be seen on a large screen. However, if the small screen is your only option, see it that way.

Maiden has a very strong IMDb rating of 7.6. I think it's even better than that.