The Crew
Project Happiness, our feature length documentary film, was created by a team of award-winning filmmakers. They’ve traveled to Africa, India, and all over the US making this film. You can hear audio interviews, and see photos of the students and crew at our Behind the Scenes page.CREATOR/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Randy Taran
Randy Taran is the founder of Project Happiness, a non-profit organization that empowers youth and parents to create greater happiness in their lives through social and emotional learning. She is the co-author of the Project Happiness Handbook, a detailed workbook that illustrates best practices in promoting emotional intelligence and character building for people of all ages. To promote lasting happiness, Randy produced a documentary film where students from three continents met the Dalai Lama, George Lucas, Richard Gere, and neuroscientist Dr. Richard Davidson. An experiential learning curriculum that grew from the film is being used in classrooms and youth programs globally. This curriculum has been taught in over 25 schools nationwide. Internationally, the curriculum has also served students in Guatemala, Australia, India, Canada, Nepal and in 15 schools in Nigeria.
Randy is also the founder of Spring Communications, which develops and produces youth-oriented television and film programming. She has developed several peace-related projects in collaboration with the Dalai Lama Foundation, Jane Goodalls’ Roots&Shoots and other grass-roots organizations. Past projects include Peace Wall, and the film series “Focused on Peace”.
Randy lives in Northern California with her husband, three children and three dogs. She regularly posts best practices tips and techniques regarding social and emotional learning on Huffington Post, Twitter and Facebook.
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: John Sorensen
John Sorensen is a documentary filmmaker working in Washington, DC. He wrote and produced the independent documentary The Road to Yucca Mountain, a journey through fear and nuclear waste, as well as the PBS specials The Giving Boom: How the New Philanthropy Will Change America and the three-hour documentary The First Measured Century. He was coordinating producer for the three-hour PBS documentary Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism and senior producer of the weekly PBS series Think Tank. He was a writer, producer and editor on the A&E television series American Justice as well as the two-hour Biography special J. Edgar Hoover: Personal and Confidential. He is currently the Vice President of Production for Grace Creek Media an independent media production and distribution company. He received an MFA from Columbia College Chicago and attended FAMU, the Czech National Film School in Prague. Prior to working in film, John taught English to Junior High School students in rural Japan.
CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Andrew Walworth
Andrew Walworth, the president of Washington based production company Grace Creek Media, has developed, written and produced numerous award-winning projects for broadcast, cable and new media distribution. In 2004 he served as a member of the Arab Media Working Group of the US Institute for Peace, examining issues related to journalism and public diplomacy. He has twice served on the Editorial Committee of the PBS project POV. In 2002-2003, he was in charge of primetime scheduling for PBS YOU, the PBS digital channel for lifelong learners.DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Dave Goulding
Dave Goulding has over 25 years of experience in film and television cinematography. Over his career, he has traveled throughout the world, working on a variety of films for major networks, independent production companies and corporate and commercial clients. He is currently specializing in filming high definition independent feature documentaries. He is owner and Director of Photography of his own company, Emotion Pictures, and has received numerous awards for his work. 12 Emmy Awards and several White House Awards are just a few of the recognitions he has received for his creativity, lighting and sharp eye for composition.
EDITOR: Andrew Fetchko
Andrew Fetchko is an editor, producer, director, and screenwriter with over ten years of experience in film and television production. He has worked on a variety of commercials, network television, documentary, feature and short films. Recently he has edited varied series for Discovery, TLC, A&E and H&G as well as directing both national and regional commercials.
EDITOR: Gabriela Cabrera
Gabriela Cabrera is a editor, animator, post-production supervisor, director and Spanish translator with over fifteen years experience in film and television. She has worked on a variety of films, commercials, music videos and television programs including the Academy Award winning film, The Panama Deception. She currently edits television for NBC, Univision, SITV, KRCA and Tele Futura and she won the Gold Addy award for best television commercial for “Los Tigres del Norte”, a commercial she both edited and directed.ORIGINAL MUSIC: Bombay Dub Orchestra
The Bombay Dub Orchestra brings together a world of musical influences which fuses electronic, ambient, western classical, Indian classical, semi-classical, and other sounds from around the globe. The duo is made up of producer Gary Hughes and string/arranger composer Andrew T. Mackay. They are signed to legendary San Francisco label Six Degrees Records and have released four albums as well as scored several television programs and films including Don’t Mess with the Zohan and Bollywood Hero.