Happy Productions produces documentary-style video for nonprofits, foundations and NGOs working across Latin America and the Caribbean. In the past year we've filmed in Lima, Medellín, Honduras and Buenos Aires, always the same way: a bilingual local videographer on the ground, our producer on the brief, our editors on the cut. No crew flown in from the States for a two-day sprint. No footage that has to stretch from the January site visit to the December appeal.
Book a 20-min consult20 minutes. No pitch deck. You leave with a plan for your programs in Latin America, whether or not we work together.
Latin America is where a huge share of US nonprofit programs actually run, and where the least footage comes back from. Sound familiar?
Your country director filmed the cooperative's harvest, the clinic opening and the graduation. The footage is beautiful. It's also untouched, and the appeal deadline isn't moving.
The comms lead flies down once, shoots everything, and that b-roll has to carry impact reports, sustainer emails and social for twelve months.
Flights, a fixer, a translator, a rental van, a per diem for everyone. The budget goes to logistics and the story gets whatever hours are left before the flight home.
The same drone shot over the same hills, a sad piano, subtitles that miss the joke. Your partners in Medellín see it and know it wasn't made by anyone who knows Medellín.
For what it costs to move one crew from the East Coast to Tegucigalpa and back, you can put a vetted local videographer in three countries, and spend what's left on the edit.
Three steps. Your country team gets one WhatsApp group, one shot list in Spanish and one production day, not a film crew to host.
A 45-minute call with your program and comms leads. Our producer writes the shot list, the interview questions and the consent approach in English and Spanish (or Portuguese, or Kreyòl), then books a videographer we've vetted in-country: portfolio, reel, a live video call.
One production day where the work happens: interviews, observational footage, the moments in between. Our producer is on WhatsApp with the crew from call time to wrap, and the footage lands in a shared folder you own within days.
Our editors cut a hero film plus vertical short-form for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, subtitled in English and Spanish. When the story fits, we feature it to the Are You Happy? audience of 200 million viewers a year.
In the past year we've produced in Lima with a local crew, in Medellín with a bilingual local crew, in Honduras with a donor delegation (dairy, coffee and beekeeping cooperatives, and a stop at Copán) and in Buenos Aires with a local videographer who captured thirty interviews in a day. In Oaxaca, Mexico we filmed a sea-turtle sanctuary and a night patrol. If your programs run anywhere below, we can staff a shoot there.
Latin American countries we've filmed in: Honduras, Peru, Colombia, Argentina and Mexico. Every shoot with a local, bilingual crew and our producer on the brief, every edit cut by our team.
Headquartered in Mexico City, Bogotá, Lima, São Paulo or Buenos Aires? We work with organizations based in Latin America the same way: a local crew we've vetted, our producer on the brief, our editors on the cut, and distribution through the Are You Happy? audience when the story fits. Time zones are our normal.
Every image on this page is from a shoot we produced — stills from our photographers and frames pulled from the footage itself. No stock, no library, no other agency's work.
Dairy, coffee and beekeeping cooperatives filmed across a donor delegation week, plus a feed processing plant. Everything in Spanish with English subtitles, checked for meaning by someone who knows that concentrado is animal feed and not food — the kind of error that quietly loses a funder. The week became trip recap films, per-subject documentary cuts and social carousels.
Not stock. Not a single trip stretched across a year. Field productions, shot locally, cut by us.
Reach figures are organic, reported by clients or measured on the Are You Happy? channels. Detailed metrics are shared on the call.
“We're living in a world where video is king. And we can't just up and travel to get the content that we need. So Happy Productions was an answered prayer that fell in our lap.”
Kalindi Cordero, Search for Common Ground
Bilingual crews, Spanish-language interviews, English subtitles checked for meaning rather than words. Here is where we have actually filmed.
February 2026, with Heifer International and a donor delegation: dairy, coffee and beekeeping cooperatives, a feed processing plant, and Copán as the cultural stop. Everything in Spanish with English subtitles, and the translation checked by someone who knows that concentrado is animal feed, not food — the kind of error that quietly loses a funder. The week became trip recap films, per-subject documentary cuts and social carousels.
June 2026 in San Miguel and Pueblo Libre with a Lima production company: four family locations, about two hours each, crew call at 08:30. Families were not given the questions in advance — a local volunteer suggested what to look at, which guides the focus without scripting the answers. Footage was uploaded three days after the shoot, transcribed the next day, and first cuts were boarded the day after that.
July 2026 at a partner clinic with a bilingual Medellín videographer. Scripts were grouped by location so the day moved in one direction, a teleprompter was used where the client needed exact wording, and staff interviews were captured the same afternoon. The client's verdict afterwards was that it was professional and efficient — which, on a hospital day, is the whole review.
A local videographer in Quilmes captured around thirty interviews in a single day with the youngest club in the district, whose president was 23. The footage was deliberately exposed dark to protect highlights, and our colourist lifted it in the grade rather than the camera burning it out on the day.
December 2025 on the Oaxaca coast for SEE Turtles: a night patrol with red headlamps, a sanctuary beach, a caretaker who used to poach the nests he now protects. Twelve documentary cuts, all Spanish-subtitled with a second translation pass before release.
Our network reaches Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica. If your programmes run somewhere we have not filmed yet, sourcing and vetting a local crew usually takes about two weeks.
One production day becomes a library: the hero film for the gala, the 45-second cut for the appeal email, twelve verticals for the feed, and the two-minute piece in Spanish your partners will actually share.
There is no per-video menu on this page on purpose. Every program, country and season is different, so we scope on the call and send a written plan the same day.
One call with our producer. Bring the two or three stories you know you're sitting on and the dates already on your calendar. You'll leave with a written plan for filming in Latin America: which stories, which crew, what it takes, and what it costs. If we're not the right fit, we'll tell you on the call.
Locally, almost always. We source and vet a solo videographer or small crew in the country where your program runs, brief them with a written shot list and a live call, and our producer directs remotely on the day. Our own team travels when a client asks for it, as we did with Heifer International in Honduras.
Yes. We book videographers who interview comfortably in Spanish (or Portuguese in Brazil, Kreyòl in Haiti) and coordinate with our producer in English. In Medellín the crew ran interviews and a teleprompter in both languages on the same day.
Every cut ships subtitled. Most clients take an English version for US donors and a Spanish version for partners and local audiences, from the same shoot, at no extra scope.
Release forms in Spanish or Portuguese, signed on a phone via QR before the interview. No minors' names or identifying details, ever. Subjects review anything sensitive before it goes live, and your safeguarding policy overrides our defaults.
Most shoots book within two to three weeks of the brief. Footage lands in your shared folder within a few days, first cuts follow in about two weeks, and revisions run through a review link. If a delegation visit or an event is on the calendar, we plan backwards from the date.
You do: raw footage and finished films. We keep the right to show the work in our portfolio, with your approval.
Yes. Foundations, national NGOs and community organizations in Mexico City, Bogotá, Lima, São Paulo and Buenos Aires get the same model: local crew, our producer, our editors, and distribution through the Are You Happy? audience when the story fits.
Absolutely. Send us a link and we'll cut it. If a drive full of unused field footage is your main problem, start with our free first edit at happyproductions.me/footage.
Book a 20-minute consult. We'll map the two or three stories you're sitting on across your programs, tell you exactly what a shoot there takes, and give you a plan you can use whether or not you hire us.
20 minutes · No pitch deck · A written plan either way
P.S. The delegation trip on next quarter's calendar is a production day if someone briefs a local videographer now. Let's make it one.
