The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT
WORD VERSION
2012
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
1 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
CONTENTS
SYNOPSIS
.....
3
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
.....
6
THE MAKING OF
.....
8
THE PIRAHA
.....
12
DAN EVERETT
.....
14
ABOUT THE FILM MAKERS
.....
15
CREDITS
.....
19
CREDIT LINE
.....
23
BIBLIOGRAPHY
.....
24
CONTACT
.....
25
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
2 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
SYNOPSIS
ONE LINE
Can one man's journey into the heart of the Amazon redefine our
understanding of human language?
ONE PARAGRAPH
Daniel Everett’s goal was to bring Jesus to the Amazonian Pirahã tribe.
Instead, the Christian missionary found a people so content in their
world that they converted him; and a language so unique, he believes it
undermines our most fundamental ideas about human communication.
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
3 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
FULL SYNOPSIS
Amongst what he believes are some of the happiest people on earth,
maverick linguist and former missionary Daniel Everett sets out to
redefine our understanding of human language. In fresh studies of the
culture and language of the Amazonian Pirahã tribe, both he and a team
of scientists from MIT hope to find new evidence for his groundbreaking
concepts that, if accepted, will end the ostracism and insults he has
endured from his own savage tribe of academics.
The Grammar Of Happiness follows the story of Daniel Everett
amongst the extraordinary ‘unconvertible’ Amazonian Pirahã tribe, a
group of indigenous hunter-gatherers whose culture and outlook on life
has taken the world of linguistics by storm.
As a young ambitious missionary three decades ago, Dan, a redbearded towering American, decamped to the Amazon rain forest to
save indigenous souls. His assignment was to translate the book of Mark
into the tongue of the Pirahã, a people whose puzzling speech seemed
unrelated to any other on Earth. What he learned during his time with
the Pirahã led him to question the very foundations of his own deep
beliefs.
Convinced by the tribe’s steadfast beliefs that life is lived ‘in the now’,
that the past is behind us and therefore irrelevant and that spiritual
claims must be proven to be absolute and correct, Dan threw off the
cloth to become a crusading and controversial academic instead.
With his profound understanding of the near indecipherable Pirahã
language – once described by the New Yorker as ‘a profusion of
songbirds’, ‘melodic chattering’, and ‘barely discernible as speech,’ –
Dan re-invented himself as a linguist, grabbing headlines by challenging
Noam Chomsky’s theory of universal grammar. In the world of
linguistics, it was akin to saying that Einstein got it wrong on relativity.
As a ‘born again’ atheist, Dan divorced his devout Christian wife and
became estranged from his children. Having lost faith and family, his
new life is dominated by the desire to leave behind his legacy.
Everett’s most controversial claim is that the Pirahã language lacks
‘recursion’ – the ability to build an infinite number of sentences within
sentences, regarded by Chomsky-ists as perhaps the most fundamental
characteristic of human language. It is our ability to use recursion, or so
the orthodoxy goes, that sets human language aside from animal
communication.
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
4 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
If Everett’s claim that Pirahã lacks recursion can be proven, then many
academics believe the case for Universal Grammar is severely
undermined.
The Grammar Of Happiness follows Everett as he sets out to prove
his controversial claims. His aim is to take a group of eminent scientists
to the Pirahã, but as the controversy surrounding his work escalates, a
wedge of bureaucracy is driven between the Professor and his old
friends.
Not only is Everett forced to fight for the success of his scientific
expedition; he has to fight in order to see the Pirahã again.
The Grammar of Happiness interweaves the tale of Everett’s attempt
to return to the Pirahã with the story of his personal journey since the
sixties – from drug-taking musician to evangelical missionary to
rabblerousing academic. It’s the adventurous tale of losing faith but
finding happiness.
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
5 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Being part of the team that has crafted this film over six years has been
a wild ride. All involved will attest to the production’s significant hurdles
and most, I’m sure, will admit to questioning at some point whether the
project carried a curse. Although I have whispered this myself, there is
no question that the gift of Daniel Everett’s remarkable life story and
the chance to visit the Pirahã people represent blessings for a filmmaker that outweigh any challenge.
Everett’s story affords a rare opportunity in documentary – the chance
to interweave a cutting edge scientific inquiry with a potent characterdriven narrative. Such duality also presents a challenge to ‘strike the
right balance’ and this was certainly something we battled with
throughout the process – I hope we’ve found the right mix.
Prof. Daniel Everett himself is a driven man - seemingly approaching the
height of his remarkable career. He rose from poverty, largely through
self-education, to the point where his linguistic and anthropological
theories have formed the basis of a raging debate amongst such
luminaries as Stephen Pinker and Noam Chomsky. All Everett really wants
to do, however, is to reconnect with the Pirahã. This desire is driven by
both a longing to see his friends and a need to demonstrate how their
grammar may be the key to a new conception of language itself.
As a traveling companion, Daniel Everett is a delight. Not only does he
possess an arsenal of fascinating stories and a robust sense of humour,
he also brings an encyclopaedic knowledge of the best restaurants in
Brazil.
Churcasco banquets aside, this was a challenging production in almost
every way; the years taken in securing funding, three different directors
swapping at the helm and above all the labyrinth of bureaucracy we
were required to navigate in order to reach the Pirahã. It was a maze
that frequently had us lost and on two occasions presented absolute
dead ends.
Finally, in October 2011, after six full years of hurdles, we stumbled
onto the bank of the Maici River and had our first awkward interaction
with the Pirahã. Everett’s 30 years with the Pirahã affected him
profoundly. My own experiences with the group are some that I will
never forget. Their beautiful river is still the place I drift to in daydreams
and perhaps always will.
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
6 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
It has long been conjectured that hidden within the great bio-diversity
of the Amazon basin are untold medicinal secrets to be unlocked. The
Grammar of Happiness shows how one man was able to find other
kinds of secrets – the keys to a unique cultural resilience and happiness
- revealed through the prism of language. My time on this project has
truly given me both the most difficult and rewarding experiences of my
life - it’s a journey I will remember forever.
MICHAEL O’NEILL
THE MAKING OF
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
7 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
THE MAKING OF
A shop less ordinary.
By Michael O’Neill
Imagine you are making a trip into the heart of the Amazon rainforest.
You will be gone a fortnight and need to take everything - food, a stove,
shelter, beds, first aid, fuel, even boats. Imagine now that you are the
‘Anti Bear Grylls’ – a city boy not particularly known for your outdoor
prowess. Finally, imagine you have to buy everything needed to support
eight people on this trip in just two days.
Making the documentary ‘The Grammar of Happiness’ was an adventure
in almost every way, but perhaps the greatest challenge was an event
our film crew later called ‘the great shop.’
On a steamy Amazonian morning, Brazilian film Producer Pedro Novaes,
Australian documentary director Randall Wood and myself, Producer
Michael O’Neill slid down a muddy bank of the Madeira River and
scrambled on to a riverboat. We were there to meet Valdo, the captain
who had agreed to take us 300 miles up-river to the Pirahã tribe.
The Pirahã are a fascinating hunter-gatherer group of nearly 300 people
who live in a remote corner of the south-western Amazon. We were
visiting them as part of a documentary project about the life of
Professor Daniel Everett, a former missionary who has lived and worked
with the tribe for more than 30 years.
Unfortunately that morning, Captain Valdo had bad news. The river was
too low for his grand riverboat; In fact, it was too low for any riverboat.
If we were to visit the Pirahã, he told us, the only option would be to
hire small aluminium fast boats and camp at the village.
This was problematic for a number of reasons; Valdo’s boat wasn’t only
meant to provide us with transport, it was also our plan for toilets,
accommodation, a kitchen, running water and most importantly for a
film crew – electricity. If we had to go without Valdo’s boat, then
everything we needed to support eight people for a fortnight in the
Amazon would have to bought or borrowed. After five years of preproduction on the project that had led to that point, we had no choice
but to embrace plan B. Suddenly we had a huge shopping list of strange
items to buy and we had only two days to do it in.
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
8 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
In addition to finding boats, engines, crew, a cook, fuel, food, cooking
equipment, generators and hammocks, we also needed to purchase
trade items to offer the Pirahã in return for their time spent filming.
Below is the shopping list just for the trade items.
Pirahã Trade Items.
1. Cloth: 50 3-meter lengths of cloth, medium quality.
2. Needles/thread: 30 packets of sewing needles of different sizes + 150
small spools of thread.
3. Gym shorts for men: 70 pairs, 38cm waist.
4. 50 machetes and 50 files for machetes.
5. 30 axe heads (small and large).
6. 25 hoes.
7. 200 boxes of matches, minimum.
8. Beads: We need about 50 packets. Especially red and blue.
9. Fishing line: at least thirty rolls of line. The sizes should be 50, 70, 90
weight.
10. Fish hooks: 12 boxes of small, medium, large.
11. Farinha: 400 kilos.
12. Candles: 1000.
13. Rice: 100 kilos. Salt: 50 kilos.
14. 3 boxes of aspirins.
15. 50 tins of Vick's vapour rub.
16. At least one iron farinha oven (like a 10 foot in diameter frying pan).
With Randall Wood and myself being unable to speak a word of
Portuguese, the heavy lifting fell to Pedro. After a solid start, another
problem quickly presented itself – money. Although we had plenty in our
bank accounts, the town of Porto Velho is a cash economy and few
shops accept plastic. Compounding the problem – Automatic Tellar
machines in the town each have a $200 USD daily limit. The only way
around this was to visit every ATM in town and withdraw the daily limit;
an activity that quickly earned a phone call from each of our banks
checking we hadn’t been robbed.
After two intensive, twenty-hour days of bargaining and searching, the
shopping was complete and our small hotel rooms had been
transformed into mini-warehouses. Of course, when we reached the
Pirahã we realized that we’d forgotten a few minor items such as towels,
mosquito nets and cutlery but somehow we managed to scrape through.
Above all else, it’s given me a new perspective on shopping. Every trip
to the local supermarket and journey to buy new clothes since and even
the mania of last minute Christmas shopping has seemed like a walk in
the park.
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
9 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
Arriving amongst the Pirahã.
By Michael O’Neill
In his article for the New Yorker magazine,
journalist John Colapinto described the
first moment that he first arrived amongst
the Pirahã:
On the bank above us were some thirty people—short, dark-skinned
men, women, and children—some clutching bows and arrows, others
with infants on their hips. The people, members of a hunter-gatherer
tribe called the Pirahã, responded to the sight of Everett—a solidly built
man of fifty-five with a red beard and the booming voice of a former
evangelical minister—with a greeting that sounded like a profusion of
exotic songbirds, a melodic chattering scarcely discernible, to the
uninitiated, as human speech.
My recollection of our own arrival amongst the Pirahã is similar, In
particular I remember being overwhelmed by the cacophony of alien
sounding chattering that greeted us. Unlike Colapinto, we arrived by
small boats rather than sea plane so there was time for a larger group
to follow us up river and gather at our arrival place.
The Pirahã are a fascinating hunter-gatherer group of nearly 300 people
who live in a remote corner of the south-western Amazon. I was visiting
them with a film crew of five as part of a documentary project about the
life of Professor Daniel Everett, a former missionary who has lived and
worked with the tribe for more than 30 years.
We soon discovered that a large part of the discussion at our arrival was
a debate as to the names we should be given. According to Prof.
Everett, the tribe always endows outsiders with a Pirahã name, a name
in ‘straight head’ as they call their language (all foreign languages are
known as ‘crooked head’). It was decided that my ‘straight head’ name
would be ‘Basket’ and our cameraman Randall ‘Rats paw’.
As ‘Basket’ and ‘Rats paw’ scrambled up the riverbank into the village of
Piqua, we were nothing less than shocked by the sight that greeted us.
Randall had visited the Pirahã not two years earlier, but since that time
this village had been transformed. The Brazilian government had built a
health clinic, toilets, permanent houses and a schoolhouse. This remote
corner of the Amazon even had electricity and Television.
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
10 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
My initial reaction to this change was surprise and honestly,
disappointment. This was to be my big Amazonian adventure - gaining
permission to come in the first place had been hard fought and the
journey by road and river itself was far from easy so I guess I was
expecting the Pirahã to appear more exotic, to perhaps be living in a
simpler way. At the very least, I wasn’t expecting ‘The Simpsons’.
In the following weeks I came to realise that this initial reaction was
perhaps mistaken. Although the Pirahã haven’t rejected this new
presence in their village, they also haven’t blindly embraced it. Children
still spend most of their day swimming and learning to ‘arrow’ fish in the
river, the majority of the Pirahã 's food still comes from the forest and
river and their unique language continues to be spoken almost
exclusively over Portuguese.
The change to me, feels like something the Pirahã are using to support
their unique culture rather than something they will allow to destroy it. I
arrived with concerns for the future of Pirahã culture but eventually left
with some hope.
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
11 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
THE PIRAHÃ
The Pirahã people (pronounced pee-da-HAN) are an indigenous huntergatherer tribe of Amazon natives, a subgroup of the Mura, who mainly
live on the banks of the Maici River in Brazil's Amazonas state. As of
2010, they number 420 individuals. The Pirahã people do not call
themselves Pirahã but instead the Hi'aiti'ihi, roughly translated as "the
straight ones".
For 30 years, Professor Daniel Everett
studied Pirahã language and culture.
Everett, his former wife Keren and
Christian missionary Steven Sheldon
are the only outsiders fluent in Pirahã.
Although the Pirahã language has a
vocabulary at least as large as French,
its grammar lacks key elements many
Western linguists regard as universal
to human language.
The Pirahã have no colours. No
numbers. No words that denote time
and controversially; no recursion, the
ability to combine an endless number
of ideas in a single sentence.
As well as an extraordinary language,
Pirahã appears to be extraordinary
culture. As far as the Pirahã have related to researchers, their culture is
concerned solely with matters that fall within direct personal experience,
and thus there is no history beyond living memory. They have no
creation myths or fiction. No drawing or any other form of visual art. No
systematic recollection of genealogies – in fact few Pirahã can name all
four grandparents.
Pirahã appears to be a culture that highly values immediate experience,
disdains abstract thought and rejects the ways, technologies and
languages of outsiders.
Like St Augustine seeking God’s eternal present tense and Buddha
teaching followers to find Nirvana in contemplation of the here and now,
the Pirahã shun consideration of the past or future in favour of
experiencing each day as it is. Their genius claims Professor Daniel
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
12 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
Everett, is in understanding the intense, practical experience of
surviving in the bountiful but dangerous Amazon environment.
According to the Professor, they appear to be happy this way. The
Pirahã people have been in contact with outsiders for nearly 300 years,
but more than any other known Amazonian tribe, they have rejected
almost all foreign ideas and technology. They remain monolingual and
continue to live primarily by hunting, fishing and harvesting forest
plants. In the past two years, however, the Brazilian Government has
undertaken an experiment, providing permanent buildings, a health
clinic, school and electricity at one Pirahã village. At this stage it is
unknown what affect this will have on Pirahã culture.
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
13 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
DANIEL EVERETT
Daniel L. Everett was born in 1951 into a working-class family in
Holtville, a town on the California-Mexico border. As a teenager Everett
attended the El Capitan High School in Lakeside, where he met Keren
Graham, the daughter of Christian Missionaries. He became a Christian,
and married Karen in 1969.
In 1976, after graduating with a degree in Foreign Missions from the
Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, they and their three children moved to
Chiapas, Mexico. After Daniel's natural ability in languages became
apparent, after additional training the family moved to Brazil in 1977,
first to a city called Belém, to learn Portuguese, and then, a year later,
to a Pirahã village at the mouth of the Maici River. It was amongst these
people that he would ultimately face a linguistic challenge that had
defeated other experts for nearly a century. It was also amongst these
people that he would lose his deeply held Christian beliefs.
Today Everett is the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Bentley University. He
has been publishing academic books and papers about the Pirahã for
more than twenty-five years, but his work remained relatively obscure
until early in 2005, when he posted on his Web site an article titled
“Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition in Pirahã”, which was
published that fall in the journal Cultural Anthropology. The article,
which described the extreme simplicity of the tribe’s living conditions
and culture, was described as "a bomb thrown into the party" and
created furious debate with linguists, cognitive scientists, and
evolutionary biologists.
Everett’s paper ultimately concluded that Nom Chomsky's concept of a
universal grammar, and the universality of recursion in particular, are
falsified by Pirahã. Though a supporter of Everett in the early part of
Dan‘s career, Chomsky today, refuses to further discuss Everett's works
and has called him a charlatan.
Besides falsifying the idea of a Universal Grammar, Everett also believes
that the Pirahã provide a clear example of a relationship between
culture and the structure of language. His current research and writing
calls for renewed examination into the possible connections between
culture and grammar.
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
14 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
ABOUT THE FILM
MAKERS
MICHAEL O’NEILL
Producer/Co-Director/Co-writer
Michael O'Neill was awarded a Digital
Emmy in 2009 for his work as a coproducer and writer on 'Scorched'. Michael
wrote and directed
'Megastructures:
Dubai Racecourse' and ‘Megastructures:
Pearl River Tower’ for National Geographic
Channels, produced 'Clash of the Continents' for National Geographic
Channels and was Associate Producer on 'Travellers Guide to the
Planets' for ABCTV and National Geographic Channels. He has produced
and directed television commercials for clients such as Greenpeace,
GetUp!, Dick Smith and Woolworths.
PEDRO NOVAES
Co-Producer
Pedro Novaes, 37, is a film director and
screenwriter, working for the past few
years as a freelance pro on advertising.
From his work on the environmental
arena, came out a series of three documentaries that debate nature
conservancy in Brazil. One of them, “When Ecology Came”, was selected
for several festivals in Brazil and abroad, being awarded honorable
mentions at the Montana Cine and at the Missoula Wildlife Film Festival,
both in the US. Pedro has also directed two short fiction movies – “Run
Coralina Run” and “Departure” – and currently works on the postproduction of “Nostalgia”, a poetic short.
He was also the line producer and assistant director for “Xingu – The
Endangered Land” broadcast by TV Cultura and the Brazilian PBS. "Letters
from Kuluene", recently released at the São Paulo International Film
Festival, is his first feature film.
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
15 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
RANDALL WOOD
Camera/Co-Director
From ‘fly on the wall’ verite to docucomedy, natural history and science,
Randall Wood directs extraordinary
stories about people and events of
significance.
Randall’s credits include The Grammar
of Happiness shot in the Amazon jungle
with Essential Media (ABC TV /
Smithsonian / ARTE) 2009-2011, The
Worm Hunters (National Geographic /
ZDF/ ARTE, Jury Award - Scinema, Special
Commendation Award - Matsula Wildlife
Film Festival, Finalist - Jackson Hole Film
Festival, Official Selection - Dungog Film Festival Australia 2011, The
Curse of the Gothic Symphony, an 85 min feature-length documentary
for Wildfury, ABC TV and MIFF, To Be or Not To Be (Fox, Movie Extra 10part
series
both
2009
and
Jan-Feb
2010
series) Nonna (ABC T.V, National Portrait Gallery), Rare Chicken Rescue
(ABC T.V, SIFF 2008 Dendy Documentary Award, Silver ACS Award,
Slamdance Grand Jury Award - Best Short Documentary, AFI Best
Documentary Sound Award, Wildscreen Animal Planet People and Animals
Award finalist), Downunder Grads - a 4-part series for SBS T.V, (SIFF
2007), Changing Justice (ATOM award winner), Hinchinbrook Island
(ACS Gold Award), Goori Goori Dreaming (ABC T.V), Selo Selo Bigfala
Canoe (SBSi) and Kilem Taem (UNICEF).
Randall’s films have screened at Melbourne International Film Festival
(Aust), Clermont Ferrand (France), Sydney International Film
Festival
(Aust),
WildScreen
(UK),
Slamdance
(USA),
IDFA
(Netherlands), Hawaii International Film Festival (USA), Rendevous
with Madness Film Festival (Toronto), Wisconsin Film Festival (USA)
and Rooftop Film Festival (New York) and the Pacific International
Documentary Film Festival (Tahiti).
Randall is also an ACS award-winning cinematographer, shooting for
networks such as National Geographic (The Flood 2011) SBSI, ABC TV,
TV ASHAI, Nippon TV, NHK and BBC3. He’s studied scriptwriting and
feature film directing at the Binger Film Lab in Amsterdam. Randall Wood
was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1969.
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
16 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
CHRIS THORBURN
Co-Writer
Chris has worked in television for over 25 years and
has held senior positions as a commissioning editor,
executive producer and series producer. He’s made a
diverse slate of programs for Australian and
international broadcasters, covering everything from
serial killers to space travel. Chris originally trained
as a cameraman and editor, and has worked in
television newsrooms in Sydney, London and the
Middle East.
Presently, Chris is the Commissioning Editor for the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation’s contemporary and religious documentary strands. Since 2010
he’s overseen more than 30 hours of original programming, including On
Trial, the first ever courtroom coverage of an Australian murder trial, and
Great Southern Land, the most ambitious aerial survey of the nation ever
attempted.
Prior to working for the national broadcaster, Chris was the co-director of the
science series Voyage to the Planets (NGC/ABC). Filmed with the assistance
of NASA, the series offers viewers an armchair guide to the splendors and
perils of the solar system. ‘Succinct and beautiful’ - Sydney Morning Herald;
‘Seriously engaging television’ - The Australian; ‘Stunning stuff’ - Sunday
Telegraph.
For Discovery Channel, Chris directed the Australian episode of the network’s
landmark series Discovery Atlas. Narrated by Russell Crowe, the 100-minute
documentary was part of Discovery’s ‘most ambitious series’ it has ever
produced. ‘Stunning images to overwhelm the senses’ - Sydney Morning
Herald. For Discovery, Chris also directed the period docudrama Poisonous
Women, and the first three episodes of Deadly Women, now a long-running
true crime franchise.
Chris’s script writing credits include Miracle on Everest (NGC/ABC/France 5),
the true story of an Australian climber who was pronounced dead close to the
summit of Everest, yet lived to tell the tale. Chris also penned the AFI award
winning, Solo (NGC/ABC/BBC), about one man’s tragic attempt to kayak
across the Southern Ocean.
For BBC Worldwide Chris co-created and executive produced Outback
Wildlife Rescue, a 13-part series that sold to territories around the globe.
Chris’s directing credits also include Bush Slam, a six-part arts’ commission
for ABC Television. Hosted by H.G. Nelson, the series captures the experiences
of two poets as they compete to skewer a country town on their biros.
Since making documentaries, Chris has been fortunate to experience some
extraordinary moments. He’s ridden hot laps around the Nürburging at speeds
of 320 km/h; helicoptered more than 4,000 kilometres through the Australian
Outback; listened to the cries of humpback whales deep below the Indian
Ocean while aboard a stealth submarine; briefly become penfriends with one of
America’s most sinister serial killers; and been lowered down a rope into the
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
17 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
dark confines of an Egyptian tomb to retrieve a 3,000-year-old medical
prosthesis, now on display in the Cairo Museum. And on the whole, he’s loved
every minute of it.
Prior to making documentaries, Chris trained as a cameraman and editor with
the Seven Network. He then went on to freelance in London, and later worked
as a senior field editor in the London bureau of American network ABC,
covering breaking stories and conflicts across Europe and the Middle East.
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
18 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
CREDITS
Producer/Co-Director/Co-Writer
MICHAEL O’NEILL
Co-Producer
PEDRO NOVAES
Camera/Co-Director
RANDALL WOOD
Editor
KARRYN DE CINQUE
Original Concept
ALAN ERSON
Co-Writer
CHRIS THORBURN
Consulting Producer
AARON WOLFE
Music
CRISTIAN SCHMIDT
Graphics
LUKE HARRIS GRAPHICS
Additional Graphics
FIFTY FIFTY FILMS
Narrator
LINDA CROPPER
Researcher/Associate Producer
SARAH GILBERT
Sound Recordist
PEDRO SALDANHA
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
19 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
Additional Sound Recording
TONINHO MURICY
Additional Editing
DAVID MANEFIELD
Assistant Editors
MICHAEL TAPP
ROB NICOL
Production Coordinator
ANDREW ARBUTHNOT
Translations
DANIEL EVERETT
DENISE ANDERSON
Post Production Services
2DOGS POST
Colourist & Online Editor
PIERS MCDONALD
Sound Mixer
MIKE LLOYD
Special Thanks
BENTLEY UNIVERSITY
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
KARIN STEININGER
DENISE HASLEM
CALEB EVERETT
SHANNON RUSSELL
KRISTINE DIGGINS
BRENDAN SMITH
FOR ESSENTIAL MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT
Business Affairs
CHRISTINE NEWMAN
Production Accountants
LORRAINE PICKERING
BIANCA PANUCCIO
Production Assistant
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
20 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
KEAH BUTCHER
Associate Producer
JAY COURT
Head of Production
ANDREA GORDDARD
FOR SMITHSONIAN CHANNEL
GRETA S. PITTARD
Director of Production Management
ADDIE MORAY
Vice President of Production Management
JOY GALANE
Executive Producer
CHRIS HOELZL
Vice President of Development
CHARLES POE
Vice President of Production
DAVID ROYLE
Executive Vice President of Programming and Production
Produced by Essential Media & Entertainment in association with Sertão
Filmes for
[Smithsonian Channel logo]
Produced in association with the
[ABC LOGO]
Commissioning Editor
CHRIS THORBURN
Produced in association with
[ARTE LOGO]
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
21 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
Head of Specialist Factual
HELENE COLDEFY
Financed in association with
[SCREEN NSW LOGO]
Financed with the assistance of
[SCREEN AUSTRALIA LOGO]
Executive Producer
CHRIS HILTON
[ESSENTIAL MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT LOGO]
© 2012 Essential Media and Entertainment Pty Ltd, Screen Australia and
Screen NSW
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
22 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
CREDIT LINE
SCREEN AUSTRALIA
IN ASSOCIATION WITH SCREEN NSW
ARTE FRANCE
AND SMITHSONIAN CHANNEL
PRESENT
AN ESSENTIAL MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTION
THE GRAMMAR OF HAPPINESS
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
23 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Don't Sleep There Are Snakes
Daniel Everett
Unlocking the secret sounds of language: Life without time or
numbers
The independent, By Elizabeth Davies
Published: 06 May 2006
A Reporter at Large: The Interpreter
Has a remote Amazonian tribe upended our understanding of
language?
by John Colapinto April 16, 2007
Linguists doubt exception to universal grammar
Robin H. Ray, News Office Correspondent
April 23, 2007
Pirahã Exceptionality: a Reassessment
March 8, 2007
Andrew Nevins (Harvard)
David Pesetsky (MIT)
Cilene Rodrigues (Universidade Estadual de Campinas)
Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition in
Pirahã: Another Look at the Design Features of Human Language
by Daniel L. Everett
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
24 The Grammar Of Happiness © 2012 Essential Media & Entertainment
CONTACT
FOR ALL CREW OR PARTICIPANT INTERVIEWS, STILLS
OR FURTHER INFORMATION:
ESSENTIAL MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT
Company
Level 2, 6A Nelson Street, Annandale
NSW, 2038 AUSTRALIA
Telephone: +61 2 8568 3100
www.essential-media.com
Production
CHRIS HILTON Executive Producer
PO Box 169 Annandale NSW 2038 Australia
Telephone: +61 2 8568 3100
Email: chris.hilton@essential-media.com
For further information, stills and interviews: CHRIS HILTON
Telephone +61 2 8568 3100 Email chris.hilton@essential-media.com
25