{"id":18540,"date":"2019-06-18T16:53:34","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T23:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=18540"},"modified":"2019-06-18T16:53:34","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T23:53:34","slug":"the-raft-details-an-ill-advised-experiment-at-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=18540","title":{"rendered":"THE RAFT Details an Ill-Advised Experiment at Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Raft<\/em> opens June 21st at Digital Gym in San Diego.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As many readers know, there are plenty of great\ndocumentaries out there that bring true stories to light that would either not\nget the attention they deserve or be completely forgotten. The Raft<\/em>\nmarks one of those productions, following an ill-fated 1973 study that appeared\nquite reckless, dangerous and less than well-prepared, yet was funded and\ncarried out by highly educated minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The concept came from the mind of social anthropologist\nSantiago Genov\u00e9s, a Spanish-born PhD and professor at the University\n of Mexico. Studying the effects of\naggression in animals and theorizing on how to apply these lessons to humanity,\nthe academic invented a study dubbed the “Peace Project.” He enlisted\nten volunteers to spend three months completely isolated on a small raft\nfloating from the Canary Islands to Mexico.\nThe first task was selecting applicants who would find the trip difficult for\npersonal and physical reasons. After noting that monkeys would fight over\naccess to females, Genov\u00e9s sought to foster conflict by bringing a variety of\ndifferent nationalities aboard and also gave women positions of power, hoping\nit would incite more frustrations and jealousy on the part of male travelers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As you might have guessed, this study of human behavior did\nnot progress as expected. Some 45 years later, the feature incorporates new\ninterviews with several of the participants along with film footage of the\njourney and press releases\/news reports. Much of it is narrated courtesy of Genov\u00e9s\nhimself, who recorded his thoughts and observations regularly over the three-month\ntrip. Through the new interviews, the group state that they got on famously and\ncohabitated as well as could be hoped for given that they were packed together\nlike sardines. They share amazing tales as events progress, noting the increasingly\npeculiar behavior exhibited by Genov\u00e9s and his attempts to cause strife. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These rather forceful actions included not only collecting odd\ndata on the participants, but having them fill in questionnaires about whom\nthey liked or disliked on the raft. It becomes clear that the professor was\nobsessed and overanalyzing their actions; he exaggerates their growing\npropensity for violence in his recordings. In the interviews, the sea-faring\ngroup openly wonder how their leader could possibly chart the sexual tension\nonboard or the general stress within the group. They also note their frustration\nafter Genov\u00e9s resorts to revealing the most embarrassing survey details\npublicly in order to start fights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The depictions are remarkably tense and plenty of conflict\ndoes arise, although from unexpected sources. The media soon get involved and\ndub the experiment as a free-wheeling “Sex Raft.” After the team face\nan oncoming hurricane, things get even more complicated. With so many technical\nvariables involved, along with random attempts to artificially create stress\nand violence, it’s amazing no one who approved the project questioned the\nmethods being used (although admittedly, the university began to distance\nitself soon after the raft set sail). Genov\u00e9s clearly bullies the participants,\nforcing them to bend to his will and influence the outcome of his experiment.\nIt’s completely understandable that these methods ultimately lead to extreme\nreactions, including talk of mutiny and even murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These details are well detailed in a generally linear\nmanner, with tales of the trip unfolding and progressing as they occurred\norganically. The volunteers express what they took away from the experiment,\nand interviewers are wise to ask if they now forgive their manipulator. It all\nleads to some curious revelations as the participants are given the chance to\nshare their thoughts about the experiment, its results, and how in some respects\ntheir behavior showed more optimistic qualities than predicted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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All in all, this is a very interesting and engaging\ndocumentary with plenty of surprises. One could even suggest the original\nexperiment served as something of a precursor to modern reality TV shows (at\nthe very least that the outlandish techniques witnessed here bridge social\nstudies and bizarre entertainment). Regardless, today’s show producers shouldn’t\nanticipate an honorary PhD in their mailbox for their efforts. In any case, The\nRaft<\/em> is a fascinating documentary that provides insight into human nature\nand serves as a warning against moving forward with these types of “social\nexperiments” without monitoring the operators and taking the consequences\nof their actions into account. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Raft opens June 21st at Digital Gym in San Diego. As many readers know, there are plenty of great documentaries out there that bring true stories to light that would either not get the attention they deserve or be completely forgotten. The Raft marks one of those productions, following an ill-fated 1973 study that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[197,3821,5993,6279,7203,13735,16594,17636,18628,18630,21977],"class_list":["post-18540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-197","tag-canary-islands","tag-documentary","tag-drifting","tag-experiment","tag-mexico","tag-raft","tag-santiago-genoves","tag-social-anthropology","tag-social-experiment","tag-the-raft"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}