The Popcorn Maker I’m going to work with in stage two of the project is now live. This wonderful tool, developed by Mozilla, “makes authoring interactive media pages as easy as point and click.”

I’ve been trying out combining the video sequences with other feeds. The tool makes Flickr, Wikipedia, Twitter available as well an enabling you to add annotation and subtitling. It’s fascinating working with it, being able so readily to juxtapose the video with other content on the page.  I’ll post some content soon.

Meanwhile, I’m happy to report that The Are you happy? Project is included as work-in-progress in the Jean Rouch International Film Festival in Paris.

In the last two weeks I’ve been filming in Cardiff — the footage will be posted very soon — and I’ve heard from potential collaborators in India, Serbia, Zimbabwe, Columbia, Romania, Tasmania, and in various UK and US locations. It’s going to be so interesting to see how these sequences compare.

High on my agenda is finding someone who can shoot in Paris, where the Rouch and Morin film was made, perhaps in the same streets where Marceline Loridan and Nadine Baillot did their street interviews in 1960.  If you have any contacts there who might be interested, please do get in touch.

Very interesting to come across Inquiring Nuns — a 1968 film by the US production company Kartemquin — who are still going strong — in which two young nuns ask people on the streets of Chicago are you happy?

The title seems to sum the film up well as the nuns gentle but insistent probing turn these street interviews into a philosophical inquiry that is also very revealing about the USA of its time. I hope we can bring that kind of seriousness to interviews we are doing for this project.  I wonder what type of person might work as an effective interviewer today. Any thoughts?

As we launch our call for contributions little did I imagine that the question; “are you happy?” might suddenly be topical, as it has become with David Cameron announcing plans to include happiness in measures of national well-being.

This isn’t a new idea — the former King of Bhutan introduced a concept of “gross national happiness” way back in 1972, and the idea of measuring national well-being beyond the economic has risen up the political agenda in Western democracies in the last few years. Cameron’s initiative has split commentators  – between those who see it as a cynical move to distract from the harsh realities of Coalition government cuts, and others who don’t question the idea itself but wonder how the Government will manage to negotiate the issues of inequality that are at the heart of this territory.

So the question is both a perennial one and very much of the moment. What do you think? Are you happy? Please take a few minutes to answer. Try and be true to your experience. We’re very interested to hear what you have to say.