Movie Night

                                             Movie Night: Happy Hunting

            On April 15^th, Nicole Prowell, a Pace alumna of 2005, presented her documentary film Happy Hunting to the Pforzheimer Honors College students. She made this film during a course of two years in order to achieve her Master’s Degree in documentary filmmaking from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.

            Nicole gave a brief introduction of her film, including her inspiration for the idea that led to its production. She explained her father’s need for open heart surgery and the resultant complication which led to a three-month coma. Prior to this event, her father told her to quit her job at IBM because it made her unhappy and the most important thing in life is to be happy. He told her nobody would care or get mad at her if she quit her job. Nicole described her time at IBM as the most miserable period of her life. When she thought her father’s advice would be the last words she heard from him, she decided to quit her job.

            The idea of happiness became the focus of her project at Emerson College, where she enrolled after leaving her job at IBM. She combined this idea with the dream of driving across the country for the documentary. The documentary includes the footage of her interviews with the people she met as she drove from Boston, MA to the coast of Washington state. She asked these people, “Are you happy?” and “How do you know you’re happy?” The beginning of the film focused on the confusion people felt upon being asked such a question.

            The rest of the film focuses on the people who give their definition of happiness. However, there’s a twist in which Nicole questions whether or not the people are lying to her about being happy, as a response to a clip of a woman who explains happiness while outwardly appearing completely unhappy. During the Q&A, she mentions that a professor at Emerson gave her the idea when he saw this clip and told her that all the people she had interviewed lied to her. This idea depressed her at first, thinking her whole project a sham, but she turned it into a great part of her film.

            After Nicole finished her presentation, Prof. Paul Griffin, of the Psychology Department, spoke about the growing field of positive Psychology and happiness. He told the Honor’s students about the many interesting articles he has read about the topic.

              Overall, the Honor’s students found the whole event very enlightening; they walked away with a lot to think about.