Educational Media Reviews Online

In Pursuing Happiness, writers and producers Adam Shell and Nicholas Kraft trek across the United States to find out what makes people happy. The resulting documentary is presented in three acts: we are introduced to some happy people, we learn why Americans are generally not happy, and we are inspired by people who are happy despite having experienced great tragedy, respectively.

Shell shares his motivations for shooting the doc: over 30 million Americans are taking some kind of anti-depressant drug. After asking his circle of friends to refer to him the happiest people they know, he conducted interviews with over 400 people, and in doing so, claims to have found the secret to happiness.

The film tracks a few people throughout the entire production, such as a 90-year-old Italian man who invites strangers into his home for dinner just so he can cook for them, the young lawyer who enjoys urban gardening and cupcakes while navigating life as a stage IV colon cancer patient, and an anthropologist who spent two years with an Amazon tribe and attributes their happiness to self-sufficiency. We learn from professors and psychologists that people are unaware of what will make them happy, why people behave as if money can make them happy, and that people who give of themselves—money, time, talent—in order to help others feel happy, are themselves the most happy. For example, we follow two young men around Detroit who noticed the lack of benches at bus stops in Detroit-they reclaim wood, build and install benches around the city, and build free lending libraries under the benches.

Shell and Kraft use an unnecessary, extra-sensational tone in their narration, along with simple, upbeat music, sound effects, animations, and quick transitions between footage and stills. The style of the production and its marked age range seems to miss the mark in terms of who most needs to watch a doc on issues of happiness in America: adults. The message is arguably most useful for adults, so I am puzzled as to why the producers chose to address their likely audience in a way that won’t reach them? Thankfully the presentation in Act III is more moderate, free from the distractions of overediting. This act explores the effects of what one interviewee called “living on the edge of life,” how knowing tragedy gives people a different perspective on happiness, and it alone communicates the value of the producers’ mission and is worth the price of admission. Recommended for junior high school through adult for recreational viewing, but I have a hard time seeing this film being used in a college-level curriculum.

Awards

• Winner, Outstanding Achievement, Sacramento International Film Festival