Directed by Arnaud Robert, Paolo Woods • Documentary • 2022 • 94 minutes
The universal quest for happiness is one of the human invariants. The pharmaceutical industry is developing entire classes of drugs (anxiolytics, antidepressants, sleeping pills, opioids) that promise their consumers, if not happiness, at least some peace.
HAPPY PILLS explores the industrial response to an existential quest and our intimate relationship to drugs. In Switzerland, Israel, France, Peru, Niger or the United States, the documentary follows six characters who each need chemistry to lead what they see as a better life. In the end, it is our consumer society and the Eldorado of prescription joy that HAPPY PILLS questions.
Up Next in Health & Wellness
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Vicenta
Directed by Dario Doria • Animation • 2020 • 69 minutes
A film as necessary as it is beautiful, Vicenta explores the struggle for the right to a legal, safe, and free abortion.
Through small clay figurines and live-action news clips, the documentary narrates the real human rights story of Vicen...
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Power to Heal
Directed by Charles Burnett and Daniel Loewenthal • Documentary • 2018 • 56 minutes
POWER TO HEAL tells a poignant chapter in the historic struggle to secure equal and adequate access to healthcare for all Americans. Central to the story is the tale of how a new national program, Medicare, was u...
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Edith+Eddie
Directed by Laura Checkoway • Documentary • 2017 • 29 minutes
Edith Hill and Eddie Harrison got married in Virginia at ages 96 and 95. Dancing at the honky-tonk and going to church, their newlywed life is filled with affection, prayer and faith. Since tying the knot, both Edith and Eddie have ex...
