Will Happiness Find Us?

For the last three decades, Bermuda's most beloved resident, Johnny Barnes, has dedicated his life to making the world a happier place in his own unique way.

A person’s face and eyes preserve experience better than any document or recorded memoir. Particularly if a person has experienced as much as the well-known dissident Lidija Lasmane-Doroņina. Actually, she does not even think of herself as a dissident. She received her three terms in prisons and labour camps – fourteen years in all – as punishment not for underground struggle but for daring to remain true to her principles, convictions and faith. The ideals Lidija obtained as a child – the idyllic image of Latvia as an independent country, strong family values and faith in God as a moral measuring stick for any action. Her eyes are bright even today, at the age of 91, and they look at this world full of life.

Tired of city life and in search of adventure, my friend Fraser and I left London on two motorcycles with a plan to drive to Budapest and back. We wanted to leave technology behind, to wild camp, cook our own food, reconnect with others and importantly ourselves. The journey took two months, crossed 10 countries and covered a distance of over 10,000km. This personal film shot on 16mm documents our motorcycle journey into the wild.

I traveled to South Africa to find a white family living on a desolate farm. I wanted to film how they faced the new days of equality after the fall of Apartheid. But I soon lost my way both on the endless roads and in my way. Instead, the film became a story about two very different women who both experienced a tragic loss in the midst of a white community not too fond of the future.

The pursuit of happiness (and the display of happiness on social media!) has become a veritable cult. Happiness has become a social imperative, just like slimness, beauty and success. To better understand this obsessive quest for happiness, journalist Marie-Claude Élie-Morin takes an in-depth and personal look into this seemingly pervasive trend that sometimes leads to painful consequences.

Billions of years ago, Venus may have harbored life-giving habitats similar to those on the early Earth. Today, Earth's twin is a planet knocked upside down and turned inside out. Its burned-out surface is a global fossil of volcanic destruction, shrouded in a dense, toxic atmosphere. Scientists are now unveiling daring new strategies to search for clues from a time when the planet was alive.

Filmmaker Diego Gutiérrez knows that he is soon to lose two loved ones: his mother Gina Coppe and his best friend Danniel Danniel. Both ask him to film them during this final phase of their lives—Gina in her apartment in Mexico City, Danniel in a Dutch restaurant where he feels at home. What stories do they want to leave behind?

Using the unabridged and complete text, exactly as written by L. Ron Hubbard, The Way to Happiness book-on-film follows the printed book chapter by chapter, precept by precept. The interweaving stories of a cast of characters illustrate each concept contained in the book. It's a 2-hour feature film containing 23 segments covering each principle of The Way to Happiness, vividly enacted and illustrated. The film educates with effectiveness and ease and so brings these precepts home to anyone. The two-hour book-on-film, produced by the Church of Scientology at Golden Era Productions, its film studio in Southern California, is available on DVD in English and 15 other languages. The DVD has been placed in more than 86,000 school, public, national and academic libraries around the world. Educators, parents, community and religious leaders, law enforcement officers and many others use The Way to Happiness book-on-film in their programs.

Inner peace and self-fulfillment are possible for each of us. Two modern day monks set off on an international journey to film a diverse range of people making the choice for a better life through meditation. Stunning cinematography combined with the power of people sharing from a place of profound peace delivers a palpable and moving experience. Available to rent or buy in 11 languages - English, Spanish, Portugese, Norwegian, Mandarin, French, German, Finnish, Italian, Dutch, and Swedish. https://vimeo.com

Earth to earth, water to water. The body weight of a newborn child is up to 85 percent water, but in adulthood, the ratio can be cut into half. In a way, people dry up as they grow older. In Claudia Tosi’s documentary, people drink water, watch the rain and wait for their death. The Perfect Circle depicts a man and a woman, Ivano and Meris, who spend their final days at a hospice in the hills of Reggio Emilia, Northern Italy. Their illnesses are in the terminal stage and they know that death is only a matter of time. But the ever-nearing end may fleetingly be forgotten, like when they close their eyes and get lost in the music – until the bodies being carried out next door once again remind them of the inevitable. Death also becomes a part of life for the patients’ loved ones, who want to spend the last available moments with the soon to be departed.

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.

A love letter to Mar del Plata made of images, times and a road trip. "The Happy Ones" is an experimental short documentary composed of past and present family footage. It portrays a place in the summer, the city of Mar del Plata, with a span of 20 years between past and present images (January 2000 and 2020). Despite the time that passed by, it's beaches, essence and people remain, always willing to keep dancing.

Twice every day, rain hail or shine. That's how often the dancers at Donhuan Lu gather to exercise in the plaza. The music and the moves are hard to pass by, and the personalities are even more captivating! "Happy Dance" is a short exploration of the phenomenon that is 广场舞, and how it turns ordinary neighbours into good friends.

Documentary about the life and works of Italian filmmaker Roberto Rossellini.

NASA launches its most ambitious hunt for traces of life on Mars, landing a car-sized rover in a rocky, ancient river delta. The rover will stow samples for possible return to Earth and test technology that may pave the way for human travel to Mars.

A tale about the new worldwide trend that embraces the concept of Slow-Life: taking a step back from today's chaotic, hectic life to embrace an everyday simpler life, enjoying every step of it with all our senses.

This Emotional Life is a three-part series that explores improving our social relationships, learning to cope with depression and anxiety, and becoming more positive, resilient individuals.

Tracy and his rescue dog Charger have to foil the plans of an Evil Businessman who wants to knock over their beach restaurant in order to build his golf course. With help from his brother, Tracy tries to meet the bills, manage the kitchen (where Charger helps cook!) and still find time to fall in love with the beautiful dancer, Bridgette. Through a comedy of errors and mishaps, the humans find they themselves can be rescued by their very own rescue animals.

A movie about life and death in God's waiting room. After his fatal car accident, David wakes up in a strange room, later known as God's waiting room. David is not alone, he is greeted by a man, named Tom, who looks like he's stuck in the 1970's, he introduces David to the waiting room and fills him in on anything to know. It turns out he is God's assistant, he has a job of asking questions to the "newly dead" to see if they get a spot in the afterlife or not. After a long conversation, David and Tom talk deeply about life, death, and the meaning of living in a great mystery. Will David enter the afterlife? What secrets is Tom hiding from David?

A journey to the past inspired by nostalgia, the basis of happiness. A simple and ambitious story from the inside of a window establishes the delicate boundaries between the past, the present and the future. Produced during 2020's confinement due to Covid-19.