About the Production

Jennifer Fox began principle photography for MY REINCARNATION in 1988 and continued for twenty years  through 2009, filming in over 17 countries. The film is the result of many key creative international partnerships, without which this longitudinal study could not have been made. The turning point in the filmmaking process came in the millenium when Babeth M. Van Loo of the Buddhist Broadcasting Foundation approached Jennifer about the footage and the importance of turning it into a film for general audiences. She became the first co-producer on the film and bought the film for BOS, the Dutch Buddhist Television Channel. That same year, Jennifer received a Hartley Film Foundation grant for the project. She continued filming Namkhai Norbu and his son Yeshi, but was concerned that the film lacked narrative structure. It was only once Yeshi Namkhai began to help his father’s community that the father-son story began to clearly emerge.

The next important step in the process was a key partnership with German Producer, Carl Ludwig Rettinger of Lichtblick Film. Together he and Jennifer approached Anne Even at  ZDF/ARTE, who came aboard for a co-production. After that a crucial partnership was forged with the Swiss producers, Andres Pfeffli and Elda Guidinetti of ventura film who brought in RSI – Televisione Svizzera as co-producer on the project. Then, the commissioning editor Erkki Astala came on board the film with a co-production with YLE-1 Finish TV.  After that, through the Swiss co-producer, another strategic partnership was formed with Marta Donzolli and Greg Gregorio Paonessa of vivo Film in Italy, who will handle the Italian distribution.

In the United States, Jennifer was able to partner with the Buddhist Film Society as a fiscal sponsor. Meanwhile, Dan Kogan of Impact Partners  came onto the project as an Executive Producer with completion funds. She also brought on two other Executive Producers Joanna Plafsky and Andrian Melnikov. Other funds came through grants from the Tides Foundation and the GDF Foundation. The film was sold to Simon Kilmury of the PBS national series, POV, for airing in their 25th anniversary season 2012.

MY REINCARNATION is now being submitted to festivals worldwide. It has already been invited to premiere at three prestigious festivals in 2010: The Leipzig Film Festival, The Festival dei Popoli, and the International Documentary Film festival of Amsterdam (IDFA). A theatrical release in the United States is planned for 2011-2012. DVD sales will begin of the film website in 2011.

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