The Economics of Happiness

Sun 1:15 pm Theatre 1

72 min. 2011

Fimmakers: Helena Norberg-Hodge, Steven Gorelick, and John Page

This film examines how economic globalization has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of big business and banking, worsening nearly every problem we face. The Economics of Happiness describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. Government and big business continue to promote globalization and the consolidation of corporate power. At the same time, all around the world people are resisting those policies, demanding a re-regulation of trade and finance and starting to forge a very different future. Communities are coming together with initiatives such as Transition Towns to rebuild more human scale, ecological economies.

Happy

Sun 3:30 pm Theatre 1

75 min. 2011

Director: Roko Belic

Happy combines cutting-edge science from the new field of “positive psychology” with real-life stories of people from around the world whose lives illustrate these findings. We see the story of a beautiful woman named Melissa Moody, a mother of three who had a “perfect life” until the day she was run over by a truck. Disabled for nine years and disfigured for life, amazingly she is happier now than before her accident. Manoj Singh, a rickshaw puller from the slums of Kolkata, India who lives in a hut made of plastic bags with his family, is found to be as happy as the average American.

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