Happiness is a Journey: The Unseen America

Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan are award-winning filmmakers. Their documentary films have premiered at Sundance and won multiple awards including the Directors Fortnight best short film prize at Cannes. Patrick and Ivete's body of work focuses on the seldom seen and forgotten parts of American society.

Their most recent short Happiness is a Journey, produced by the Guardian, captures a night in the life of Eddie “Bear” Lopez, who spends his Christmas Eve and early Christmas Day delivering newspapers around Austin, Texas. 

Ivete and Patrick join us to talk about their films, upcoming projects and how they find the inspiration and subjects for their films. 

Watch the full interview at https://www.alamopictures.co.uk/podcast/happiness-is-a-journey/

“It’s the process of creating beauty and music, and then thinking why that is missing from our collective consciousness of who we are as a country, or as people, that inspires to make films.” – Ivete Lucas

00:00 - The trailer for Happiness is a Journey, and introducing Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan.
03:23 - What the film is about.
06:53 - How Ivete and Patrick met Bear and chose him as the subject for their documentary.
08:52 - The benefits of filming a documentary with an iPhone.
11:08 - Why Ivete and Patrice presented the film with a split screen.
13:25 - The relationship they formed with the Guardian and what it’s like working with them.
18:46 - What Roadside Attraction is all about.
24:43 - Why it’s fun to create shorts rather than feature documentaries.
30:03 - How they discovered Pahokee and why they decided to tell the community's story.
33:40 - Patrick and Ivete’s attraction to the unseen parts of America.
36:37 - The immigrant perspective that Ivete brings to their films.
37:54 - Patrick’s background as a visual artist and why he left that scene.
42:39 - Their upcoming feature film Naked Gardens about a struggling nudist resort in Florida.
47:55 - The new films they're shooting in Texas and Louisiana.

Happiness is a Journey (2021)
Pahokee (2019)
Skip Day (2018)
Roadside Attraction (2017)
The Rabbit Hunt (2017)
The Send-Off (2016)
Naked Gardens
The MovieMaker Magazine
Innersound Audio
Alamo Pictures

Connect with Ivete Lucas:
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IMDb

Connect with Patrick Bresnan:
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IMDb

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