False Happiness is a documentary about the life, work and influence of Professor Nick Dungey. However, it is also a film about human values and the modern misunderstanding of happiness as it applies to our personal and political lives.
In his lectures Nick clearly illustrates the modern American tendency to equate joy and fulfillment with material wealth and consumerism rather than the development of a more nuanced understanding of pleasure as ephemeral and contingent upon our personal outlook and ability to artistically shape or give meaning to our lives.
Drawing from the work of thinkers like John Stuart Mill, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Friedrich Nietzsche, Franz Kafka, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty, and others Nick makes a case that without an appreciation for the foundations and evolution of our core values as a society we cannot fully grasp a vision of a healthy, heroic future.
Under the influence of Nick's teaching, guidance and encouragement his students go on to study law, champion social and political causes, and make art of their lives. This documentary is one such example. While there is no doubt that Nick is a remarkable person with an exceptional power of mind, he is also a manifestation of circumstance, timing, and chance -- factors we would be remiss to overlook.
Therefore False Happiness is as much an attempt to share the work and influence of an outstanding educator as it is a means to celebrate a man whose ability to act as a human catalyst and champion for forward thought is incontrovertible.