Documenting an historic Atlantic voyage

Alumnus Ryan Barnett’s film The Raftsmen recounts the harrowing adventures of Henri Beaudout and L’Égaré II

March 16, 2017

By Jeremy Glass-Pilon

A man, a wooden raft and a life-altering journey across the Atlantic. That’s the focus of The Raftsmen, a short documentary film released by Ryan Barnett, MA (film studies) 13, last summer.

Barnett’s film recounts the 1956 cross-Atlantic voyage of Henri Beaudout on his log raft, L’Égaré II, which Beaudout built himself, along with his three shipmates.

Ryan Barnett took great pains to present Beaudout’s personality and the effect the trip had on his life in his new film L’Égaré II. | Photo: Sonia Barnett

“It recounts the voyage of L’Égaré II, but also the motivations of Henri,” Barnett says. “It’s about that kind of therapeutic effect this crazy adventure had on his life and mind. It was a kind of salve to treat the mental trauma he suffered as a result of his experiences during WWII.”

Barnett started on the film during his time at Concordia as an independent study project, working with Luca Caminati, associate professor in the university’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. During this time, he had focused his studies on ethnographic filmmaking and travelogues.

It was a simple decision when he heard about Beaudout’s voyage on CBC Radio’s C’est la Vie.

“I’d written a paper that touched on the story of Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki,” Barnett says of a similar voyage across the Pacific, eight years before Beaudout’s Atlantic trek.

“So when I heard the words ‘Atlantic Kon-Tiki’ on the radio my ears perked up. I hadn’t heard that story at all, so of course I was interested.”

Sonia and Esmé Barnett, Ryan Barnett, Henri Beaudout

From right: Henri Beaudout and Ryan Barnett, with wife Sonia and daughter Esmé, at the opening of the new L’Égaré II exhibit at the Quebec Maritime Museum. Even after finishing the film, Barnett and Beaudout have remained great friends. | Photo: Marie Wadden

Although Barnett began working on The Raftsmen at Concordia, he continued well after graduating. Despite the added responsibilities of a new family — he recently had a baby — and the pressures of a new job, he continued working on his film whenever he could.

In 2014, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival, selected him for a fellowship for emerging documentary filmmakers.

More than a film

Before attending Concordia, Barnett worked in publishing for six years. Upon making the decision to go back to school, he was determined to develop a documentary film alongside his studies.

The gestation process for the 16-minute film was slow, stretching just over four years as Barnett collected interviews and followed Beaudout to conferences. However, Barnett insists that his biggest accomplishment is not the film itself but having been able to see Beaudout’s dream become a reality.

“When I met Henri four years ago, his goal was to see his raft rebuilt and put in a museum,” he says. “He has since realized that dream, and the fact that I could make a documentary that would go alongside this exhibit is just icing on the cake for me.”

Accompanying a one-third-scale version of the historical raft, Barnett’s film is screening at the Quebec Maritime Museum in L’Islet, Que, for the next year. After that, the entire exhibit will take to the road to travel across Canada between museums.

Barnett now works for Historica Canada, developing new Heritage Minutes. This collection of short films, focusing on notable figures and moments in Canadian history, just celebrated its 25th anniversary.

Production on his latest film Heritage Minute, a profile of Inuk artist Kenojuak Ashevak, brought Barnett to Cape Dorset, Nunavut — “the most satisfying professional experience of my life,” he calls it.

He explains that his time at Concordia allowed him to develop both the academic and creative skills that go hand-in-hand when making these 60-second vignettes.

“Every day I’m flexing the muscles that I was allowed to work out when I was in my program,” Barnett says.

His telling of the L’Égaré saga hasn’t stopped. Last January, Barnett was contacted by Firefly Books in Toronto to develop a graphic novel about the maritime adventure. The Raftsmen graphic novel is scheduled for release in September 2017.

Evidently what was once, as Barnett describes, “a piecemeal project,” is now beginning to take a life of its own.

Documenting an historic Atlantic voyage

More than a film

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