Mr. Happy Man

Matt Mor­ris, an award-win­ning film­mak­er liv­ing in Win­ter Park, Flori­da, came across John­ny Barnes in the same way he has dis­cov­ered all of his film sub­jects — by com­plete acci­dent. One day, while flip­ping through images on Flickr, Mor­ris stum­bled upon a tourist’s pho­to of the 88-year-old Bermu­di­an. He then read the cap­tion attached to the pho­to and knew he had to make a film about Barnes. “Aside from the fact that I tend to make films about elder­ly folks,” Mor­ris told us, “I’m fas­ci­nat­ed with peo­ple who have cho­sen unique ways of liv­ing their lives and as a result are irre­press­ibly hap­py.” “I want to make films about them in part so that I can learn from them.” And so, Matt head­ed to Bermu­da to cap­ture “Mr. Hap­py Man” work­ing his mag­ic on Crow Lane each day.

In Decem­ber, we fea­tured a 2008 film by Mr. Mor­ris — Pickin’ & Trim­min’, an ele­gant doc­u­men­tary that show­cas­es the blue­grass music made in a down-home North Car­oli­na bar­ber­shop. It’s not to be missed. Mor­ris’ next film, Mark & Lor­na, will take as its sub­ject a lounge singing duo based out of Orlan­do, Flori­da.