(35 mm, 72 min, color, 1995)

Four visions of happiness. DREAM: A writer in crisis gets unexpected help from his wife, but only when she is asleep. CAKE: A couple argues while she bakes a cake for the celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary. CROSS: A respectable and well-married man, a grandfather, meets an ex-girlfriend from 50 years before. ROAD: Two couples wanting a quiet weekend on the mountain range cross paths with a grumpy trucker with no brakes.

Photo by Alex Sernambi: Pedro Cardoso, Débora Bloch

Directors: Jose Pedro Goulart ("Dream"), Jose Roberto Torero ("Cake"), Cecilio Neto ("Cross") and Jorge Furtado ("Road")

Executive Producers: Annette Bittencourt and Everson Colossi Nunes ("Dream"), Zita Carvalhosa ("Cake"), Cecilio Neto ("Cross"), Nora Goulart and Luciana Tomasi ("Estrada")
Written by: Jose Pedro Goulart ("Dream"), Jose Roberto Torero ("Cake"), Cecilio Neto ("Cross") and Jorge Furtado ("Road")
Cinematographers: Joel Lopes ("Dream" and "Cross"), Katia Coelho ("Cake"), Alex Sernambi ("Road")
Art Directors: Fiapo Barth and Fernando Leonetti ("Dream"), Billy Castilho ("Cake"), Fiapo Barth ("Road")
Music: Leo Henkin ("Dream" e "Road")
Editors: Luis Alberto Kley ("Dream"), Paulo Sacramento ("Cake"), Cristina Amaral ("Cross"), Giba Assis Brasil ("Road")

A Production by
Zeppelin Filme e Vídeo ("Dream")
Super Filmes ("Cake")
CN Cine ("Cross")
Casa de Cinema PoA ("Road")

Main Cast:
Cassiano Ricardo ("Dream")
Denise Fraga ("Dream")
Jofre Soares ("Cake")
Vanda Lacerda ("Cake")
Paulo Autran ("Cross")
Assunta Perez ("Cross")
Pedro Cardoso ("Road")
Débora Bloch ("Road")

CRÉDITOS COMPLETOS

Awards

• 23rd Gramado Festival, Latino Cinema, 1995:
  Best Film (Popular Jury), Best Brazilian Film 
• 3rd Cuiaba Film and Video Festival, 1995:
  Best Film (Popular Jury)
• 28th Brasilia Film Festival, 1995:
  Best Film (Popular Jury), Best Actress (Denise Fraga, in the episode "Dream")

Reviews

"Boldness makes it worthwhile: the episodic feature filme HAPPINESS IS… took home two of the three most important Kikito awards and became the biggest winner of the twenty-third Gramado Film Festival. The cooperative and authorial production showed the filmmakers’ maturity. They have been at the forefront of Brazilian short features. The acceptance felt yesterday showed them to be able to charm the audience today".
(Amir Labaki, FOLHA DE SÃO PAULO, 21/08/95)

"With four ideas in their heads, one camera in their hands and a lean budget, the filmmaking quartet finally achieved the golden dream of Brazilian cinema: making a feature-film. (...)The best of the bunch, by far, is Road, written and directed by Jorge Furtado. On the big screen, Furtado recreated the charm and frivolity of two young high-middle-class Brazilian couples who are planning activities for their weekend in the countryside. Meanwhile, heading towards them is an ugly, dirty, mean, cursing scrap-towing trucker. At the fleeting crossing of such disparate fates, Furtado makes happiness contingent on luck. He ends up making a great short movie".
(Revista Veja, 20/09/1995)

13/09/1995