Jennifer Fox Turns to Crowdfunding for My Reincarnation

by Kyle Rupprecht | Published October 25, 2011

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu with Jennifer Fox in 1988. Photo by Alex Siedlecki.

When moviemaker Jennifer Fox (“Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman”) completed her latest project—the documentary My Reincarnation, about a Tibetan Buddhism Master and his Western-born son—a last-minute funding emergency left her with a dilemma not many moviemakers face: Though her film was already finished and had even begun screening at festivals, she had no money to pay off the debt the film had accumulated or arrange for its theatrical distribution. To raise the necessary completion funds, Fox turned to crowdfunding, which utilizes social networking to raise money from individuals interested in seeing a project come to completion (or, in Fox’s case, get distributed).

My Reincarnation’s Kickstarter campaign became one of the crowdfunding Website’s biggest success stories, earning 300 percent more than its original $50,000 goal and becoming of the highest-earning finished films in Kickstarter’s history. Starting this Friday, October 28th, moviegoers will help determine whether My Reincarnation’s crowdfunding success will translate into box office success, as the movie’s much-anticipated theatrical release brings it to New York, Los Angeles and other cities across the United States.

MovieMaker had a chance to chat with Fox about the long process of making My Reincarnation and her experience with crowdfunding. For more information about the film, and to find out whether it’s screening in your area, visit MyReincarnationFilm.com.

Kyle Rupprecht (MM): Could you talk a little about how My Reincarnation came to be?

Jennifer Fox (JF): My Reincarnation is a very special project. I began to shoot it in 1989 at age 29, when I was on sabbatical from filmmaking after completing my first film, Beirut: The Last Home Movie, shot during the war in Lebanon. Despite the film’s success, I was so burnt out after that six-year filmmaking journey that I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to make another film again. So I took an informal job as a secretary traveling with my Buddhist teacher, the high Tibetan Master Chögyal Namkhai Norbu. Being around Rinpoche was so unique that I couldn’t help but think that I should film him. So I brought one of the first small format Hi8 video cameras and began to record his private life as we traveled from place to place. I had no idea what I would do with the footage. At the same time, Rinpoche introduced me to his family and his son, Yeshi, then only 18 years old, whom I also began to film.

MM: You shot the documentary over a 20-year period. What accounted for such a long filming process?

JF: When I started filming in 1989, it was common knowledge that Namkhai Norbu’s son Yeshi was the reincarnation of his father’s uncle, a famous master who died at the hands of the Chinese. Knowing this, I immediately started to imagine a father-son story where the son would wake up and recognize his reincarnation, then return to Tibet and be enthroned in the monastery waiting for him. But when I told Yeshi of my filmmaking dream back in ‘89, he said I should forget it. He wanted nothing to do with this legacy. He was only 18 years old, playing in a rock band and studying at the University. Nevertheless, I continued filming for years. But nothing happened, and eventually I stopped traveling with Namkhai Norbu, put the footage aside and made other films. But I couldn’t walk away entirely. Periodically I returned to record Rinpoche and Yeshi. A decade and a half went by, and I was still filming my teacher, still waiting for a story to appear. Slowly, I began to hear word that Yeshi’s life was changing. He was flooded by visions of his past life. That was the first time I knew I had a film, and it was already 18 years into shooting!

MM: At what stage during the making of My Reincarnation did you decide to utilize crowdfunding? Why did it seem an appropriate project for this method?

JF: My Reincarnation was technically finished and already showing at festivals, but the actual costs of post-production and securing the music rights hadn’t been paid off yet. We were waiting for one of my co-producing partners to send us their promised $100,000 contribution to the budget. Finally, through no fault of their own, they came to me and said they couldn’t raise the funds due to the shifting funding landscape in their country. I suddenly had this enormous debt for a project that was already screening around the world. I didn’t know what to do. It’s common knowledge that you can’t fund a film backwards. To get [as] far [as we had], we had already sold off most of the major TV [rights] and had exhausted the foundation, investment and donor possibilities. Crowdfunding was the only hope I had. It was either that or bankruptcy. Believe me, I was scared to death we wouldn’t succeed.