Project Happiness (Documentary) – USA
Happiness – I want more! From the alleys of Nigeria and the beaches of Santa Cruz to the mountains of India, ordinary young people lead us on an extraordinary journey to explore the nature of lasting happiness and end up starting a movement. In the quest for a happier and more meaningful life, Project Happiness offers life-changing insights to people of all ages. Project Happiness, the award-winning documentary, focuses on four teens from Santa Cruz, California. Each faces personal obstacles to happiness: loss, alienation and the everyday challenges of being a teenager passing into adulthood. Through Project Happiness, they are introduced to their peers in Nigeria and India and lectures are quickly left behind. Along the way, students engage in conversations with cultural icons from all walks of life including Producer/Director and Education Activist George Lucas, Actor and Humanitarian Richard Gere, Neuroscientist Richard Davidson and others. At the end of their year, the three groups converge in India for a rare private interview with the Dalai Lama – an event that rocks their expectations, brings more questions than answers and marks a new chapter in their lives.
SYNOPSIS
Project Happiness, is a feature length documentary film which follows a senior high school class from Mount Madonna School near Watsonville, California, on a journey to discover the true nature of human happiness. Joining them on this quest are students from the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamsala, India, and students from the Dominion Heritage Academy in Jos, Nigeria.
Using email, blogs and video cameras, the participants from three continents exchanged their cultural perspectives. Over seven months, they shared personal stories, opinions and challenges, which created the foundation for life-long friendships.
Directed by John Sorensen
John Sorensen is a documentary filmmaker working in Washington, DC. He wrote and produced the independent documentary The Road to Yucca Mountain, a journey through fear and nuclear waste, as well as the PBS specials The Giving Boom: How the New Philanthropy Will Change America and the three-hour documentary The First Measured Century. He was coordinating producer for the three-hour PBS documentary Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism and senior producer of the weekly PBS series Think Tank. He was a writer, producer and editor on the A&E television series American Justice as well as the two-hour Biography special J. Edgar Hoover: Personal and Confidential. He is currently the Vice President of Production for Grace Creek Media an independent media production and distribution company. He received an MFA from Columbia College Chicago and attended FAMU, the Czech National Film School in Prague. Prior to working in film, John taught English to Junior High School students in rural Japan.