Think the Earth

Roko Belic is an American film director who is currently producing a documentary about people's happiness. Since it is an independent production, the director has had difficulties financing the film. So he turned to the general public and raised approximately 36,000 dollars via the Internet as well as through other media. He has already travelled to more than 14 countries all over the world and spent 4 years filming and editing, and now, he is in the final stages of production, aiming to complete the film by the end of this year. Director Belic was nominated for Academy Award's best documentary feature for the film, "Genghis Blues" (1999).

The director realized that although America is the world's greatest economic power , many people in the U.S. weren't happy. That is why he decided to shoot a documentary about what being "happy" is all about in various parts of the world. When he shot people living in slums in India, the director described how "Despite the fact that they live in little huts made of bamboo sticks covered in plastic tarps and plastic bags; despite the fact that there's open sewage running in front of where they sleep; despite the fact that they have no income for medical care or schooling or for anything in excess of subsistence living, they're as happy as the average American... What I saw in the slum that I see missing in many American neighborhoods is a real, genuine sense of camaraderie and a bond among the people who live there." He also shot clips of grandmothers in Okinawa, and there too, he saw how people's strong relationships were the key to their happiness.

Butan's "Gross National Happiness (GNH)" index is known worldwide now, and many researches on happiness are being undertaken such as the World Database of Happiness made available by the Erasmus University Rotterdam in Holland. It is evident that purely pursuing economic wealth does not lead to happiness, and because we have prioritized economic development, social issues such as environmental destruction and the widening gap between the rich and poor are intensifying. The key to stopping these trends depends on what kind of happiness each and every one of us seeks. Perhaps the film, "Happy" will give us a great hint.