ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the film Pursuit of Happiness directed by Rudy Burckhardt. Three years after the release of his first film, Seeing the World: Part One, A Visit to New York, NY., Burckhard released a rather different follow-up, which he titled Pursuit of Happiness. As the film progresses, its editing becomes increasingly daring, and suddenly real-time shots of pedestrians are replaced with fast-motion, slow-motion, and freeze-frame versions, frames are rotated 90°, 180°, and then 270°, split-screen compositions are created, and complicated and disorienting studies of reflections are presented. The film's title serves as a clever play on words, simultaneously commenting on the American Dream, the relentless drive of New York's pedestrians, and the commercialism of its windows, walls, and signs, and the pleasures of a street photographer in tune with his environment.
