Current Project

Gross National Happiness: 68 Miles from Thimphu

Synopsis

Everyone is striving for happiness. The tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan has been known in the West as the happiest place on earth, the last Shangri-La. But in just one generation, the people of Bhutan have witnessed their society leap from the middle-ages to the 21st century digital world. Perhaps the biggest challenge is yet to come. In 2008, at the urging of their much beloved King, Bhutan will become a democracy.

What happens when modernization and political change transform a serene culture that has kept the outside world at bay for over four centuries? Gross National Happiness: 68 Miles from Thimphu will chronicle the dramatic societal and cultural impact of these historic events on the people of Bhutan and explore what lessons the world can learn as we witness the birth of a democratic nation.

There are no Starbucks in Bhutan, no McDonald's, no billboards advertising Coca Cola or the latest Hollywood movie, yet monks stroll the marketplace shopping for yak meat chatting on cell phones and young students walk home from school singing Shakira songs. Within a small radius of Thimphu, the capital city, there is a stunning diversity of Bhutanese society. In downtown Thimphu, teenagers in Western dress check out episodes of «Sex in the City» while farmers outside the city harvest their rice with handmade scythes. Further up in the mountains, semi-nomadic yak herding tribes roam the high valleys and Buddhist monks in ancient monasteries pray in seclusion during three-year retreats in their quest for enlightenment. All within 68 miles from Thimphu.

How will this Buddhist country come to terms with consumerism and the growing demand for material possessions? Will a democratic Bhutan continue to try and define prosperity in terms of Gross National Happiness? This documentary film will explore the concept of Gross National Happiness and how it will play a role in the new democracy. We hope to share the excitement of discovering some of the answers to these questions throughout this film. Bhutan remains a remote location in the world which has not been extensively filmed. Therefore we have a great deal of unique footage and a window into a society which has not been widely covered by the Western media.

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