The Happy Film
Directed by Stefan Sagmeister, Ben Nabors and
Hilman Curtis
2016 / 95 min / USA
Austrian Graphic Designer Stefan Sagmeister is
doing well. He lives in New York, the city of his dreams, and he has success in
his work, designing album covers for the Rolling Stones, Jay-Z and Talking
Heads. But in the back of his mind he suspects there must be something more. He
decides to turn himself into a design project. Can he redesign his personality
to become a better person? Is it possible to train his mind to get happier? He
pursues three controlled experiments of meditation, therapy and drugs, grading
himself along the way. But real life creeps in and confounds the process: art,
sex, love and death prove impossible to disentangle. His unique designs and
painfully personal experiences mark a journey that travels closer to himself
than ever intended.