Chronicle of a Summer changed the landscape of documentary filmmaking with its original concept of cinéma-vérité, where the presence of the camera is instrumental in revealing truth from the subject. In 1960 Paris, ethnographic filmmaker Jean Rouch and sociologist Edgar Morin, with the aid of two young women, traverse the streets asking passersby “Are you happy?” This simple question is the start of a foray into the sociopolitical concerns of the time — the Algerian War, decolonization, legacies of the Holocaust, the rights of workers, and modernization. Rouch and Morin assemble a cast of everyday Parisians to discuss these pressing issues on camera and to watch and reflect on their individual “scenes” collectively. Chronicle of a Summer is a stand-out example of the French New Wave commitment to revealing the structures of filmmaking.