Jennifer Fox and her My Reincarnation (POV 2012) team raised a record-breaking $154,000, the most ever for Kickstarter campaign for a finished film and the second highest ever raised for a documentary. Watch the video interview with Fox to find out how she did it.

Jennifer Fox (Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman, Love and Diane, An American Love Story) has been directing and producing films for more than 30 years, which makes her somewhat of a sage in the film world. Her most recent documentary is My Reincarnation, which tells the story of high Tibetan master Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche and his Italian born son’s stubborn reluctance to follow in his father’s footsteps.

For 20 years Fox followed Rinpoche and his son from Tibet to Italy. However, it wasn’t until Year 18 that major funds arrived to support the film.

After the documentary shooting was completed, Fox found out that one of the film’s producers was not able to raise his $100,000 commitment. Fox had already spent that money and was now in deep debt. So the director turned to her loyal team — Katherine Nolfi, Lisa Duva and associate producer Stefanie Diaz — for help. In February 2011, the quartet launched the My Reincarnation crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter, a web-based fundraising platform for creatives. Their original goal was set at $50,000 to raise by May. When spring rolled around however, Fox and her team had raised a record-breaking sum.

Interview/editing: Emily Thomas, Camera: Jade Courtney Edwards

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Emily Thomas

Emily Thomas is a Fall 2011 intern with POV Digital. She's interned at Esquire magazine and Vice magazine. Currently Emily is finishing her senior year at NYU, where she is double majoring in journalism and social & cultural analysis. She is also a freelance journalist and aspiring documentary filmmaker. Her top five documentaries are: 1. Buena Vista Social Club (Wim Wenders) 2. Woodstock (Michael Wadleigh) 3. Crumb (Terry Zwigoff) 4. Dont Look Back (D A Pennebaker) 5. Paris is Burning (Jennie Livingston)