Joshua M. Greene American writer, producer and director. Date of Birth: 04.06.1950 Country: USA

1. American writer, producer, and director
2. Education and Spiritual Journey
3. Transition to Filmmaking
4. Witnessing the Holocaust
5. Continuing Documentary Work
6. Spiritual Biographies

American writer, producer, and director

Joshua Green is an American writer, producer, and director, best known for his books and documentary films about the Holocaust and as the author of the "spiritual biography" of George Harrison, "Here Comes the Sun." He was born and raised in Manhattan, New York. When he was a child, his parents divorced.

Education and Spiritual Journey

After completing high school, Joshua attended the Sorbonne University in Paris, where he studied comparative literature, specializing in French literature. In 1969, he attended the Woodstock Festival, where he first encountered the Hare Krishnas. Later that year, during the Christmas break, he visited the Radha-Krishna temple in London, which had been recently opened by the disciples of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, with financial support from George Harrison, who was a frequent guest at the temple. Reflecting on his youth, Joshua recalls, "We were very romantic, idealistic, naive generation, seeking our own path in the world, but our parents didn't know how to guide us. Our guides were popular figures like The Beatles."

During this time, the Hare Krishnas and George Harrison began working on the first-ever pop album featuring Sanskrit mantras, "The Radha Krsna Temple." Tamal Krishna Das, upon learning that Joshua played the keyboard for a student musical ensemble at the Sorbonne, suggested that he play the harmonium. Upon returning to Paris, Joshua "read not Stendhal, but the Bhagavad Gita." After some time, Joshua dropped out of university, shaved his head, and dressed in saffron robes, becoming a Hare Krishna monk-initiate. Receiving spiritual initiation from Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and the Sanskrit name "Yogeshvara Dasa," Joshua spent the next 13 years of his life as a monk in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) ashrams, where he "found a ready-made family" that he didn't have in his childhood. In his own words, "Suddenly, I had a home and a family, with shining, caring brothers and sisters." In the 1970s, for some time, Yogeshvara Dasa served as the leader of ISKCON in France, a position appointed by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Transition to Filmmaking

After many years as a monk, Joshua Green decided that he had learned all he wanted and that it was time to apply this knowledge on a broader scale. However, besides knowledge of Hindu literature and memorized Sanskrit mantras, he had no professional qualifications, and no one wanted to hire him. In the end, his love for Hindu stories and storytellers led him to a film studio that produced cartoons and films for children. Over the following years, he wrote scripts for over 50 animated films.

Witnessing the Holocaust

Joshua then married Esther Fortunoff, from a wealthy Jewish family of New York entrepreneurs who owned the Fortunoff chain of stores. Using his family's financial resources, he funded the creation of a video archive at Yale University, collecting the stories of Holocaust survivors. Inspired by the archival recordings, Joshua Green created the documentary film "Witness: Voices From the Holocaust" and the accompanying book.

Continuing Documentary Work

Following the release of the film on American television, Joshua Green received a call from the widow of a former American prosecutor in the Dachau concentration camp trials. This led him to create his second documentary film, "Justice at Dachau: The Trials of an American Prosecutor," produced by Discovery Communications. Soon after, he also published a book with the same title.

Spiritual Biographies

As a result of working on materials related to the Holocaust, Joshua Green fell into depression. At the suggestion of his wife, he wrote his next book about George Harrison and his spiritual journey.