Happy Ivy and his daughter Life live on the streets of Venice Beach, California. Although Happy raises Life to be free and wild, only attending two weeks of school, she remains grounded. Happy’s desire to live without constraints means his family barely has enough to eat and struggles to find a place to sleep. Together, they spend most of their time at Venice Beach — a place, also struggling with the dichotomy between freedom and being a slave to freedom. The documentary follows Life for a decade from adolescence through her early twenties. Life now takes care of her aging father. “Happy is Life,” directed by Smith Glover and Topher Straus, conveys a free-spirited and unconventional portrait of family life within a vibrant and supportive community.