Allen received intense backlash for this perception and for his theatrical methods. Negative perceptions grew even more as the commune which bore Biosphere 2 seemed fairly cult-ish to the public, with Biosphere 2 inventor John Allen seeming to serve as the synergists' cult leader. We do not know what's going to happen." A group, bonded "If I had to do it over, I think the one thing that I would put at the top of every press release," Nelson added, would be that "this is an experiment. "I mean, my god, Biosphere 2 is supposed to be a quiet R&D facility." He added that there was a great misconception that the project was intended to be some kind of "eco Disneyland," but they were simply looking to learn and explore. ![]() Suddenly, debates broke out over whether this was really a science experiment or if it was, as some describe in the film, "ecological entertainment." This debate is shown growing when word got out that the project emanates from a commune of theater-loving hippies. (Image credit: NEON)īut these small "breaches" caused a stir not only in the media but with scientists around the world. In the documentary, Nelson describes that when the oxygen was pumped in they all felt so much better they just started to run.īiospherian Linda Leigh interacts with the public from inside the sealed habitat. The crew was also starving, because crops were dying. The team had to pump supplemental oxygen into the facility because the biospherians were severely oxygen-deprived. Later on, it was revealed that there was a carbon dioxide scrubbing (or removing) machine in the biosphere, meaning the crew had a backup oxygen support and didn’t have to rely solely on the experiment. This was portrayed in the media as "breach," and some started rumors saying that the mission had failed. She had to briefly leave the bubble to go to the hospital to have surgery and brought back a few extra items with her. The first shoe to drop, so to speak, was when biospherian Jane Porter had an accident in the first crewed mission, slicing off the top of her finger. While the film reveals the magic that sparked and fueled the project, it doesn't shy away from the controversy that plagued the experiment and its participants. And I think that's why it touched a nerve around the planet," he added. "We are working on how to integrate humans technology - including farming - with a healthy biosphere as exemplified by seven or five different little biomes," Nelson said. The film even features a few celebrity appearances, like "Golden Girls" star Rue McClanahan and famed primate biologist Jane Goodall, who welcomed the first Biosphere 2 crew "back to Earth" after their two-year mission. It almost seems like magic watching this group of unlikely people somehow actualizing the Biosphere 2 project, which was named to remind people that planet Earth is "Biosphere 1." And, as the documentary shows, that sense of awe was felt around the world as the media flocked to the site. Related: Biosphere 2's history and mystery in photos Making magic and controversyĪ rainbow over Biosphere 2. Harding captured an incredible amount of fairly intimate film, much of which made it into the documentary, which shows the group performing with their theater, building their many projects and becoming a strange little family. ![]() ![]() Marie Harding, also known as "Flash," ended up in charge of finances with Biosphere 2 and taught herself how to shoot 16-millimeter video early on in order to document the group's ambitious exploits. A "synergist was someone who was following the way of life," Nelson said. While in New Mexico building the Synergy Ranch, the group called themselves "synergists" and grew into a kind of wild, almost hippie-like community of people from all walks of life. "We did theater in all of our projects," Mark Nelson, an ecologist and original member of the Biosphere 2 crew who worked as a communications officer inside the habitat, told. Eventually, after a number of other international projects, they wound up in Oracle, Arizona where Biosphere 2 was born. The group then moved back to California to build and operate a large ship that they used to tour around the world. It all started with their first project, the " Theatre of all Possibilities," after which they moved to New Mexico to start the Synergy Ranch. The documentary follows the group, who began as a band of stragglers looking for a purpose in San Francisco in the 1960s. The documentary features interviews with members of the Biosphere 2 team, including the so-called "biospherians," the crew who lived inside of the enclosure during a two-year crewed mission from 1991 to 1993, along with archival footage. Biospherians (left to right): Jane Poynter, Linda Leigh, Mark Van Thillo, Taber MacCallum, Roy Walford (in front), Abigail Alling, Sally Silverstone and Bernd Zabel posing inside Biosphere 2 in 1990.
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