Happy
Happy is a 2011 feature documentary film directed, written, and co-produced by Roko Belic. It explores human happiness through interviews with people from all walks of life in 14 different countries, weaving in the newest findings of positive psychology. Director Roko Belic was originally inspired to create the film after producer/director Tom Shadyac (Liar, Liar, Patch Adams, Bruce Almighty) showed him an article in the New York Times entitled "A New Measure of Well Being From a Happy Little Kingdom". The article ranks the United States as the 23rd happiest country in the world. Shadyac then suggested that Belic make a documentary about happiness. Belic spent several years interviewing over 20 people, ranging from leading happiness researchers to a rickshaw driver in Kolkatta, a family living in a "co-housing community" in Denmark, a woman who was run over by a truck, a Cajun fisherman, and more.
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- Cast:
- Tenzin Gyatso
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Reviews
That was an excellent one.
Pretty Good
Captivating movie !
Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
Great movie. When I watched this movie it made me feel that happiness is obtainable. Through religion, and doing the right thing. I believe this movie taught a very valuable lesson as in if you do good things, it can make you feel good. People think scientific facts would matter but science doesn't define emotions. Some things are unexplainable in life for a reason. I think this is great, and enjoyable to watch. I have seen this movie multiple times when I was upset and it always brought me out of my funk and helped me feel positive again. I showed this movie to many members of my family and it made them not only get emotional, but they felt this was a great guide to become a happy person.
Spoiler Alert. In the United States we are led to believe by advertising that materialism and having a bigger house and shiny car will lead to Happiness. We are starting to figure out this quest for more "stuff" is misleading & does not bring happiness. Happy and I Am are both wonderful documentaries that offer a alternative message, that we are out of balance with nature (cancer is the only other thing on Earth besides us that takes more then is needed in Nature), and that more and more money does not lead to a happy life. The moronic review "Biggest load of crap" by Kiernan Holland motivated me to write this review and respond to his review. "It offers no scientific data" - There is a ton of studies being done on the subject and to say there is no scientific data is a blatant lie. forbes dot /sites/learnvest/2012/04/24/the-salary-that-will-make-you-happy- hint-its-less-than-75000/ learnvest dot com/2012/01/top-1-complains-they-cant-make-ends-meet-117/ These are two quick studies showing with empirical evidence supports the claims in Happy. If all Kiernan Holland got out of this documentary is that it did not delve into sex, some confusing and stupid tangent into drugs, and that it is bias towards Buddhism, take his review with a grain of salt.
(Spoiler Warning)!!!! This film will make you happy! What an amazing feeling I had after watching this film. Film may not be the correct term in describing this passion project of genius, Roko Belic... I think the word experience is apt. Funded and executive produced by comedy directing legend Tom Shadyac(Ace Ventura, Evan Almighty), Mr. Belic takes us around the globe in a search for what it means to be happy...and we find it! It is hard to put into words what he has accomplished in this riveting and eye-opening documentary, but we see and feel that true happiness is pretty easy to attain. Do yourself and your loved ones a favor. SEE THIS FILM/EXPERIENCE!
Tom Shadyac, the director of the Nutty Professor read in a NY times article that although the US was one of the richest countries it was nowhere near the happiest and also noted from his own experience materially successful people he knew were often less happy than their gardeners. Intrigued he funded director Roko Belic to make this movie investigating what makes people happy. He goes to Denmark, Namibia, Scotland, China, Kenya, Brazil, Japan, Bhutan and India and interviews a bunch of people and the result is quite an interesting movie on how things play out. They start with a guy in India living in poverty in one of the worse slums but he's about as happy as the average American partly because there is a lot of community involvement. In Japan he meets the Okinawa islanders who generally have a cheery simple life and live to about 100 and also the family of a pressured salary man who dropped dead in his thirties from stress and overwork. It's interesting to see the contrasts and it may well give some inspiration for your own life.