Happy Valley

Winner
Grand Jury Prize ~ Documentary
Sundance Film Festival
A devastating portrait of a community - and by extension a nation - put under a spell, even reduced to grateful infantilism, by the game of football.
-- David Denby, New Yorker

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Happy Valley

The town of State College, the home of Penn State University, has long been known as Happy Valley, and its iconic figure for more than 40 years was Joe Paterno, the head coach of the school's storied football team. His program was lauded for not only its success on the field but also its students' achievements in the classroom. And Paterno took on mythic national stature as "Saint Joe." But then, in November 2011, everything came crashing down. Longtime Assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky was charged with 40 counts of child sex abuse, setting off a firestorm of accusations about who failed to protect the children of Happy Valley. Was Sandusky's abuse an "open secret" in the town? Did Coach Paterno and the Penn State administration value their football program more than the lives of Sandusky's victims? Filmed over the course of the year after Sandusky's arrest as key players in the scandal agreed to share their stories, Happy Valley deconstructs the story we think we know to uncover something much more complex.

From the director of My Kid Could Paint That and The Tillman Story.
Not Rated
Genre
Documentary, Drama, Sport
Runtime
97
Language
English
Director
Amir Bar-Lev
Awards:
Winner, Grand Jury Prize ~ Documentary, Sundance Film Festival
FEATURED REVIEW
Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice

But in a festival thick with painful scenes, little compares to Jerry Sandusky's adopted son, Matt, recounting his realization that the charges of pedophilia against Sandusky could be describing the way Sandusky once treated him, too — and that he'd never been brave enough to admit it. Amir Bar-Lev ...

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