March 9, 2023 | Miami, Florida, United States [Libna Stevens, Inter-American Division News]
A new documentary film called Masters of Joy, which is part of the cross-media Happiness project by the Global Adventist Internet Network (GAiN) in Europe, will premiere on March 20, 2023, through Hope Channel Inter-America as well as other Hope media channels around the world. The film has been awarded the Best Feature Documentary by the Boden International Film Festival in Sweden.
Masters of Joy shows the life of five children from different countries and how they understand happiness. Filmed in Nepal, Mexico, Bolivia, the United States, and Iceland, the documentary came about within the Happiness project meetings, and the desire to show happiness through the eyes of a child, said Lizbeth Elejalde, program director of Hope Channel Inter-America
Elejalde, who wrote, directed, and edited Masters of Joy, said she was inspired by the ability that children have to be happy no matter where they are. “I hope this documentary lets viewers see that for children, far from material things, happiness is a state of mind,” she said.
The 37-minute documentary project took 10 months to complete, including fine-tuning the script, inviting other media centers to be part of the project, and choosing each character, as well as post-production, said Elejalde. Producers included Michael Moyer who filmed in Tennessee, Binod Dahar Kumal who filmed in Nepal, Evelyn Velinova who filmed in Bolivia, Uriel Castellanos who filmed in Chiapas, Mexico, and Griselda Rosales who filmed in Iceland.
“It’s amazing to see how this collaborative work allows you to enrich content that we create, without elevating costs, and allows opportunities for local production teams in different parts of the world,” said Elejalde.
Scheduled to be released on the International Day of Happiness (March 20th) as designated by the United Nations, Masters of Joy had a special premiere in Chiapas, Mexico, on Feb. 19, 2023, during the GAiN Chiapas event. More than 1,500 cheered on Iker, the five-year-old boy from San Juan Chamula, Chiapas, who, along with his parents, were special guests during the viewing of the film. Previously, a soft launch of the film was viewed in Bucharest during GAiN Europe event in October.
“I’m so excited to see the final product after seeing the idea on paper,” said Adrián Duré, network projects coordinator and producer at Hope Media Europe. When the idea of the project was presented to him, Duré soon saw a great potential because he knew children, regardless of culture, context, and circumstances, would show their natural and innocent way as happy as they are and how they understand happiness.
This article was originally published on the Inter-American Division news website.
