The Bowdoin Library Experiment (1972)
Comedy
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Comedy, Short Films, 27-Aug-2026
This recently discovered footage shows a controversial psychological simulation going awry. Jeff Braun’s “The Bowdoin Library Experiment (1972)” is a playful, liberal arts parody of the infamous “1971 Stanford Prison Experiment.” A muffled narration outlines the study. The undergraduate students broke out into roles: “readers,” “librarians,” “smuthounds,” and a single “goblin doctor.” However, without instructions besides their assigned characters, unexpected detours and tension quickly arose between students, particularly in a discourse about a newly aired TV show of the time, “The Brady Bunch.” Braun delivers another comedic exercise in hyper-specific parody. His last short we featured, “Greatest Scrabble Game of All Time,” follows a tense, live-streamed game of scrabble between two players set on a single word. -JM. Director: Jeff Braun. Cast: Joe Miciak, Michael Kandel, Cameron Bradford, Jeff Braun, Jonathan Dunne, Andrew Shankland, Adam McShane, Sam Otter. DP: Noah Broch.
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