Our Story

Exactly one week before Thanksgiving 2008, director John Goshorn was laid off from his job in local television.  

"As I wrestled with questions of why and how, and developed coping strategies, I was also struck by how my circumstances could have been much worse, how desperate I might have become if they were, and why.   As I wrote, I realized that I was far less concerned with the mechanics of the plot than the national and human psychology the plot revealed.  Namely, the tendency to believe that we should remain immune from harm, that the end of restoring whats ours justifies whatever action will get us there, and our inability to accept that perhaps the life we perceive to be ours was never real in the first place, just an attempt to recreate a fairy tale." 

Over a period of nine months of unemployment, this thinking developed into the story of the feature film, The Happiest Place on Earth:

Days after Jonah and Maggie Price move into their first home, he loses his newspaper job, jeopardizing their dream of finally starting a family after a decade together.  Maggie picks up a second job, and they attempt to muddle through, but Jonah cant find work and they find themselves in danger of losing their home.  After a particularly humiliating job interview, Jonah retreats to the coast to console himself, but doesnt come back.  When he is declared missing, Maggie must weigh her material circumstances against her hopes of his safe return.

The Impact

We hope that our film will spark discussion from all Americans -- everyone from socialists to Tea Partiers -- about what the American Dream looks like going forward, and how to insure that whatever that dream is, it isn't used as a mechanism to exploit the many for the profit of the few.  We urge our audience to seek and promote life-affirming values that don't involve material or lifestyle benchmarks, to measure their lives not by how well they are able to will themselves to a predetermined picture, but by how well they love those they encounter.

If this film is not funded, and therefore not made, the cinematic legacy of the economic crisis in 2008 will be limited to a few documentaries and several big-budget Hollywood fictions about laid-off corporate executives, and will not include representations of the millions of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck, working every day to attain home ownership and financial stability for their families, only to have it remain an elusive dream.

What We Need & What You Get

Your contribution will go directly toward one of three areas:

1) Production liability insurance to cover equipment, locations, and cast/crew members from accidents, injuries, damages.

2) Food & drinks to fuel our cast and crew throughout production. 

3) Production design: any locations, props, wardrobe or set dressing we must buy or rent.  Our priority is to get everything for free, obviously, but to insure consistent access to some sets or to provide authenticity, some things will cost money.

We need $7,000 to complete principal photography, and must have it by April 15 to roll camera on schedule.  We're aiming to raise $5,000 of that from you via small contributions (under $100) from you, $1000 more through larger, tax-deductible donations (if you want to give more than $100, ask us how), and $1000 more from fund-raising events we're staging throughout the Central Florida area.

Other Ways You Can Help

Like us on Facebook, come to one of our events, tell your friends about our film, our events, and how to help.

If you're in the Central Florida area, contact us regarding specific props, wardrobe, and locations you might be able to provide, or donate food and drinks for a day of filming.