ajantemirova Review of My Reincarnation

My Reincarnation (2011)

The matter of responsibility in family and in religious lifestyle

[9/10 · 25 March 2018]

"My Reincarnation" is one of the unique films of Jennifer Fox, an American producer and director, that was released in 2011. This is documentary film that shows a biography of one of the Tibetan Buddhist masters, Rinpoche, and his son, Yeshi. The most interesting fact about this documentary is that it took 20 years for Jennifer Fox to film and produce it. The story of the documentary is not focused only on the Dzogchen, one of the Tibetan Buddhist teachings, but it touches the family relations and altruism. Family relationship between son and father is one of the central topics that is discussed in this movie, that can be observed through the interviews of both men. These interviews show an unusual father-son relation, where one is a master, and another is son of a master, showing the great responsibility laid upon their shoulders just by their titles. Master Rinpoche feels the responsibility to help other people and save the cultural identity of Dzogchen, that is why he sacrifices all his time that he could spend with his family. A dozen of students and followers all over the world replaces him his family. During his life he put the duty of master higher than the duty of father. However, that does not necessarily mean that Rinpoche completely fails in his role as a father, because in the documentary we just see him more as a master rather than as a father. On the other side of the story, there is his son, Yeshi, who believed that Rinpoche took too much responsibility that negatively affected his own personal life because of Rinpoche's altruist lifestyle, that include continual teachings all over the globe and consultation with the followers of Dzogchen. Through the whole documentary it is seen how Yeshi's opinion on his father's attitude towards life has changed during these 20 years. At first, he did not understand, or even did not want to understand, all things related to these teachings, while towards the end of the documentary he accepted his fate of the reincarnation of his father's uncle, also a great master of Dzogchen in Tibet. Great effort has been put in the recording and the production of this movie. Jennifer Fox used a good method of blending the interview material with other daily life video materials. By following this method viewers can actually see what did Rinpoche and Yeshi mean in their interview as it helps to visualize the interview in their real life. Furthermore, this method helps us to better understand feelings of these two main characters. Another thing that can be noticed throughout this documentary is Buddhist teachings and lifestyle. We can see how the first community, Merigar, has appeared and how Rinpoche is trying to deliver teachings to the students through representing samsara as an ocean. The documentary "My Reincarnation" is not just a simple biography of a religious master. It is also a story about relationship between father and son, the struggle of responsibility, the story of many other people, who seek peace and solution in the teachings. There are a lot of useful life lessons that can be learned from this movie.