SFIFF: Happiness (Thomas Balmes, France/Finland, 2013)

Note: Showtime is 12:15 p.m. Running time is 80 minutes. Tickets are $13 for SFFS members, $15 general, $14 for students/seniors/the disabled, and $10 for children, available at the festival Web site (http://www.sffs.org/festival-home/attend/film-guide/happiness#.U0INcVdWgXU). As part of a CineVoucher 10-pack (http://www.sffs.org/cinevoucher-10-pack), tickets are $12 for members and $14 general.

The San Francisco International Film Festival (http://www.sffs.org), the longest-running film fest in the Americas, returns for its 57th edition from April 24 to May 8, screening nearly 170 films at various Bay Area locations.

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In "Happiness," documentary filmmaker Thomas Balmes ("Babies") takes the perspective of an eight-year-old aspiring monk to explore a contemporary Bhutanese village's decision to adopt electricity, and with it television and the Internet. Winner of the World Cinema Documentary Cinematography Award (for Balmes and Nina Bernfeld) at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

Watch a clip from the film here: http://vimeo.com/89748438

"Paints an evocative, memorable picture of lives in transition." -- Stephen Farber, The Hollywood Reporter