The Raft

Wisconsin Premiere • documentary • Sweden • 2018 • DCP • French, Japanese, English, Swedish, German, Spanish with English subtitles • 97 MIN

section: New International Documentaries

It was one of the craziest and most dangerous sociological experiments of all time: in 1973, eleven strangers boarded a raft, and floated across the Atlantic Ocean. The 101-day journey from Spain to Mexico was the brainchild of anthropologist Santiago Genovés, and was intended to study violence, aggression, and sex in group behavior—with a particular emphasis towards the latter. Through ads in international newspapers, he recruited six women and four men from a variety of countries and walks of life, all conspicuously young and attractive. Loftily dubbed "The Peace Project" by Genovés and "The Sex Raft" by the press, everyone's interactions were copiously evaluated in real time through diaries, interviews, and 16mm film. But when the purportedly impartial Genovés wasn’t getting the results he wanted, he began manipulating the experiment even further. Now, with forty years of hindsight, the experiment's six surviving women and one man reunite to reexamine their time aboard this strange vessel, bringing an overdue female perspective to Genovés's one-of-a-kind research. Thanks to the trip's extensive film documentation, we are able to witness the spectrum of emotions and danger in this one-of-a-kind voyage for ourselves. Best Documentary, CPH: DOX Festival. (MK)