Jillian Schlesinger's "Maidentrip," which debuted at SXSW and screens this weekend at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, chronicles Dutch teen Laura Dekker's sail around the globe at age 14, a feat which would win her the title in 2012 of youngest person in history to make the voyage alone. Observant and unassuming, the documentary looks at the significance of Laura's trip not in terms of records, but as a rite of passage, and as a way for the teen to negotiate her past. The film gets the ugly stuff out of the way first. Following Dekker's announcement to sail in 2009, she and her father were embroiled in a ten-month legal battle. Dutch authorities claimed that Laura needed a custody transfer, while the internet tossed words at her including "arrogant," "spoiled" and the particularly nasty sentiment: "I hope she sinks." After a year of warring with the courts and shouldering waves of media opinion, Laura was permitted to make her voyage, and to remain under her...
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