Does money make you happy? Kids and family? Your work? Do you live in a world that values and promotes happiness and well-being? Are we in the midst of a happiness revolution?
HAPPY, the latest award-winning film from Academy Award® nominated director, Roko Belic (Genghis Blues) and Executive Producer, Tom Shadyac (Nutty Professor, Bruce Almighty, I AM), takes us on a journey from the swamps of Louisiana to the slums of Kolkata in search of what really makes people happy. Combining real life stories of people from around the world and powerful interviews with the leading scientists in happiness research, HAPPY explores the secrets behind our most valued emotion.
HAPPY features insights from experts in the field of positive psychology including Ed Diener, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Richard Davidson, Daniel Gilbert, Nic Marks, Gregory Berns, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, P. Read Montague, and Tim Kasser and is narrated by Marci Shimoff, best selling author of Happy for No Reason and Chicken Soup for the Woman s Soul.
EXTRAS INCLUDE:
Over 30 minutes of Bonus Features: Extra Scenes, Q&A with Director Roko Belic, Interview with Executive Producer Tom Shadyac, Behind the Scenes Photos, and Trailers
9 Subtitles: French, Spanish, Chinese, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Czech, English
English Closed Captioning for the hearing impaired
Director’s Commentary
AWARDS:
Best Documentary – Maui Film Festival
Grand Jury Prize – Amsterdam Film Festival
Most Inspirational Documentary – DocMiami International Film Festival
Audience Choice Award – Mendocino Film Festival
Best Documentary – Rincon International Film Festival
People’s Choice Award – Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival
Best Documentary – Mexico International Film Festival
Audience Choice, Student’s Choice Awards – Mountainfilm in Telluride
Audience Choice Award – Arizona International Film Festival
Best Feature Film – Costa Rica International Film Festival
Nice movie about happiness in many societies. I watched this movie because lately I have been interested in what makes people happy.I was surprised that the people who made the movie had examples of happy and unhappy people from all over the world. There was this example of happy people that lived in a community in Denmark (I think), where they each had apartments that were part of a cluster, and they took turns cooking, and it was basically like living with a giant family. I had not ever heard of modern people living like that. Those people were very happy. There was also an example of unhappy Japanese people–in Japanese culture, there is a word for people who die of working too much, and that phenomenon is just part of their society. That was kind of sad.I felt like this movie was more entertaining than informative; I didn’t leave the film with a clear idea of what things I could do to become happier, except maybe to spend more time with friends. I did enjoy watching it, though. The wide variety of cultures represented made the movie really vibrant and interesting.I would recommend this movie to anyone. I think it was totally appropriate for families.
This movie made me happy!
I really liked this movie. I too saw it with my family (10 year old son, 13 year old daughter and husband) and we all liked it. I think it all comes down to the fact that we’re happiest when we’re feeling connected to other people and I think there’s been enough research over the last decade to support this. It was interesting to note that extreme happiness and sadness are both short lived in that we all pretty much have a happiness set point that we revert back to quite quickly. When I think of all the mindless drivel we could have watched on a Sunday night I have to say that I think this movie was well worth my family’s time. It was positive, sweet, informative and heart-warming and made us feel more connected because we watched it together.