April 29, 1933. December 27, 1979. July 24, 1982.
If one of those days is your birthday, listen up.
Somewhere out there, there's a person that is exactly the same age as you, going about their life in another town, city or country.
A Belgian production company wants to find these “birthday twins,” and they're looking in Brooklyn.
Starting with the question, “What would my life have been like if I wasn’t born in Belgium but in another part of the world?” the team is seeking out 22 participants to meet with their 22 Belgian counterparts, born on the same day and of the same gender. Once they find them, they plan to film a series for Belgian National Television to show the parallel lives.
Among the parts of the world they're zoning in on, why Brooklyn?
“Brooklyn is almost legendary for us Europeans; we all know it from the movies, without ever having been there,” says Annelore De Doner, an editor at Woestijnvis of the tentatively titled “Birthday Twins Project.”
“Given the city’s fascinating atmosphere, we think it would be exceptionally interesting to be able to portray a citizen born and raised there…from an individual, original and intimate point of view.”
Despite what they seem to know about Brooklyn from media, De Doner admits, there is much about the way of life here that they would like to learn by comparing the “birthday twins.”
“An episode of an inhabitant of Brooklyn next to a Belgian person of the exact same age would be quite fascinating and confronting for us, Belgians, as we know too little about the way of life on the island,” says De Doner. “A comparison between their opinions on life could give our documentary an extra dimension, we believe.”
In addition to Brooklyn, Woestignvis is also looking in the United States to Texas and Los Angeles, with a birthday twin found there whose apartment overlooks the iconic Hollywood sign, as well as having already garnering interest from about 120 people from about 40 countries.
The goal is to find three birthday twins for each participant and have him or her meet each one in their respective city, where they can see how much of an influence their surroundings has had by immersing the Belgian in the daily life of her or her twin and filming that experience for several day. The end result will be parallel portraits showing the Belgian person visiting their three twins in their native countries.
The birthdays Woestignvis are currently seeking are, for men: April 29, 1933; July 18, 1948; July 19, 1948; September 25, 1949; February 11, 1952; January 18, 1956; May 5, 1956; December 30, 1960; July 24, 1962; January 14, 1965; January 27, 1965; October 5, 1968; February 5, 1969; December 1, 1971; and May 3, 1981. For women, they are: April 5, 1943; May 2, 1950; July 20, 1963; March 24, 1964; March 26, 1975; December 27, 1979; and July 24, 1982.
Interested candidates can contact Woestijnvis by email at twins@docfish.be, phone at ++32 2 303 35 88, or by mail at Woestijnvis, co Twins, Harensesteenweg 228, B-1800 Vilvoorde, Belgium, including your contact information. After they receive a response, they will call to go over the project and ask questions to determine if they want to include the person in the documentary.
