Mighty Mary and 1995 America’s Cup

For Boston-based documentary filmmaker Mary Mazzio, her latest film “Mighty Mary” tells the story of the first all-female sailing team to challenge for the America’s Cup in 1995.

A Georgetown Law graduate and former Olympic rower who competed for the United States in the 1992 Olympics, Mazzio has long been drawn to stories that intersect elite competition with broader social issues.

“The driver here is the story, and it is an extraordinary opportunity to be able to tell it,” she said. “This is a groundbreaking team of women who go up against the most savvy, formidable, best sailors on the planet, going toe-to-toe with men and women.”

Production on “Mighty Mary” formally began in January 2025, though Mazzio said her desire to tell this story had been with her for decades.

“This project has been in my mind since the 1990s,” she said. “I didn’t start making films until the 2000s, but I remember the story well. I was on the 1992 Olympic rowing team, and a number of my teammates went and joined the Mighty Mary team as grinders. I remember the twists and turns of that time, and I remember thinking to myself how that was a story that needed to be told.”

Over roughly 18 months, Mazzio and her team mined archival footage, conducted extensive interviews, and even returned to the original yacht sailed during the 1995 campaign with some of the original crew-members.

One of the biggest surprises during production, she said, was the enthusiasm the project received from many of the groundbreaking America’s Cup team’s former male competitors.

“I knew the women would love the movie, but I did not anticipate the excitement of the men and their willingness to participate,” Mazzio said. “The addition of the men – these women’s former competitors – brought a nuance to the film that I was, frankly, unprepared for and so excited by.”

For many of those sailors, the project offered a chance to reflect on how attitudes toward women in sports have shifted since the 1990s.

“Some of those sailors expressed how important it is for them to move away from what their fathers taught them and toward what their sons are learning,” Mazzio said. “That is such an important, beautiful message for where we are today as a country.”

“Mighty Mary” will debut at Nantucket Film Festival on June 18. It will feature a conversation between panelists Mary Mazzio and film subjects Amy Baltzell, Linda Lindquist, and Suzy Leech, moderated by island author Nathaniel Philbrick. The film will be released theatrically in 15 cities nationwide this fall.

For more on the Nantucket Film Festival: www.nantucketfilmfestival.org

Source: The Inquirer and Mirror