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Agents of Happiness
Counting Smiles, Seeking Heart
Speakers
2024 | 90 minutes | Nepali and Dzongkha with English subtitles | Bhutan/Hungary
Can you measure happiness? The country of Bhutan invented Gross National Happiness to do just that, and Amber is one of the agents who travels door to door to meet people and see how they feel. However, he hasn’t gotten around to measuring his own happiness level. Still living with his mother at the age of 40, he’s nevertheless a hopeless romantic who dreams of finding love. But as one of the Nepali minorities who were deprived of their citizenship, Amber isn’t the most eligible bachelor. We embark with Amber on his bittersweet journey to encounter Bhutanese from all walks of life. At the end of the road, we are reminded of the fragility and beauty of our own happiness. No matter where we live.
Following the screening, Director, Arun Bhattarai will participate in the discussion with Usha Rao, followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
Producers: Arun Bhattarai, Máté Vince, Noémi Veronika Szakonyi
In collaboration with:
Speakers
Arun Bhattarai
Arun Bhattarai’s recent film Agent of Happiness debuted at Sundance festival 2024 where it was a Grand Jury Prize nominee. It subsequently won awards at the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Margaret Mead Film Festival and the Biografilm festival. It also played at, CPH: DOX, Thessaloniki Documentary Festival and Hot Docs. His short documentary Mountain Man won the grand Jury prize for short films at DOC NYC 2023, qualifying it for the 2025 Oscars. He premiered his first feature length documentary The Next Guardian at IDFA 2017. Arun’s films have been theatrically released and broadcasted all over the world. His films have received support from The Sundance Film Institute, The Catapult Film Fund and The IDFA Berth Fund among others. He has also served as Jury at the Sydney Film Festival.
Usha Rao
Usha Rao is an anthropologist at large and independent media maker. Her interest is cities – specifically Bangalore’s on-going transformation post large projects like the metro. She co- directed and co-produced Our Metropolis (2014), a feature length documentary with Gautam Sonti about the remaking of Bangalore as a ‘global city.’ She is currently working on several shorts about Bangalore’s neighborhood spaces post the metro.
