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Summary
John Bush is a filmmaker, cinematographer, and visual artist based in New York City. His films films have been screened at festivals, theaters, and museums around the world. John’s documentary film trilogy of Buddhist pilgrimage in Southeast Asia and Tibet, The Yatra Trilogy, later renamed Journey into Buddhism, by PBS, was broadcast nationwide as a 4.5 hour PBS mini-series, as well as in Europe and South Africa. John’s films have been official selections in various film festivals in competition for Best Documentary, including the Bangkok International Film Festival, the Rome Film Festival, and the Filmfest München (the Munich International Film Festival). Direct Pictures is his production company in Lower Manhattan.

Early Life
John was born on February 28th, 1944 in Buffalo, New York. He worked at the Library of Congress’s film department in Washington, D.C., then attending college at the University at Buffalo where he majored in Writing and American Studies, and became an anti-war movement leader. He then traveled overland on a pilgrimage to India where he remained from 1970-1972. During this time he engaged in Buddhist and Hindu practice, following the teachings of his guru, Neem Karoli Baba. In 1974, John moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts where he started a popular gift and toy company, Illuminations.

Illuminations Career
John was the CEO and creative director of Illuminations, the company he founded and ran from 1974 to 2000. Beginning as a cottage industry, the business evolved into a mid-sized corporation in the gift and toy industries. During his time with the company, John created the bestselling Transparent Rainbow Decal, started a popular line of glow-in-the-dark stickers, and collaborated with Lucasfilm on a glow-in-the-dark product line for Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace.

Film Career
John began making films in 2000 after a long career as the founder and CEO of Illuminations. John's films are centered around the themes of pilgrimage and passage.
 * Films:
 * 1) Into the Heart of India (2018)
 * 2) The Yatra Trilogy/Journey into Buddhism - PBS Mini-Series
 * 3) Dance Films

1. John is currently in post-production on Into the Heart of India, his new feature length documentary. The film is a cultural portrait of the 5,000-year-old, still thriving, Pilgrimage tradition in modern India. The film travels 2,500 miles to legendary pilgrim destinations from the shrines of the Himalayas to the shore temples at India’s southern tip. John and his crew traveled as pilgrims for nearly a year in total to film this picture. The film includes interviews with Indian pilgrims, vocal artists Deva Premal and Andy Desmond (also known as Miten), author & teacher Ram Dass, Grammy nominated singers Krishna Das (singer) and Jai Uttal, and others.

2. In 2013, PBS broadcast John’s 4.5 hour film series, The Yatra Trilogy, nationwide – retitling it Journey Into Buddhism and changing it into a three-part mini-series. The show played in primetime in eighty five percent of United States media markets. The trilogy’s films are Dharma River, Prajna Earth and Vajra Sky Over Tibet. WGBH-TV in Boston is the presenting station. PBS distributes the films for home video in North America. The Yatra Trilogy has been screened at museums such as: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Asia Society (New York), National Gallery of Australia, Art Institute of Chicago, Asian Civilisations Museum Singapore, Seattle Art Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, Library and Archives Canada (Ottawa), Bishop Museum, (Honolulu), Portland Art Museum, Asian Art Museum (San Francisco), Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, Anchorage Museum, British Museum, Danish Film Institute, Norton Simon Museum (Pasadena) and the Rubin Museum of Art in New York. The films include: Prajna Earth: Journey into Sacred Nature (narrated by Sharon Stone), Dharma River: Journey of a Thousand Buddhas, and Vajra Sky over Tibet: Journey into an Endangered World. The 14th Dalai Lama released a message for Vajra Sky over Tibet including, “I am grateful to John Bush for his dedication to this project,” and “I wish this film every success.” The film was screened during the Dalai Lama’s appearances in more than a dozen cities.

3. John made eight dance films throughout his film career with French-born New York dancer and choreographer, Nadine Helstroffer, who has been called "a performer and choreographer of fierce concentration and focus" by The New York Times. The films have played in over 100 festivals in 28 countries, including the Cannes Film Festival and the Spoleto Festival, or Festival dei Due Mondi. Their films won the Gold Remi Award for Performing Arts at the Houston International Film Festival, The Gold Kahuna Award at the Honolulu Film Awards, and First Prize at the Cyprus International Film Festival. The films include: Bhairavi Sky, Ajar, Dream On Me, Absence Presence, Sky Scraper, Hourglass, Zephyr, Portal, and Vajra Realm.

Reception of Work
John Bush's work in photography and film has been reviewed and commended by many critics and publications.
 * "Gorgeous and astonishingly lovely." - Boston Globe
 * "A gallery of stunning pictures." - Denver Post
 * "The finest use of digital videography to play on a big screen." - Film Threat
 * "A well-photographed inside look." - Los Angeles Times
 * "For a stunningly beautiful visual trip into exotic and lush sacred Buddhist and Hindu locations, this film is unparalleled." - World Movie Reviews
 * “The Yatra trilogy offers up the mesmerizing beauty and ineffable power of places most of us will never see.” - Tricycle
 * "Beautiful cinematography." - This Week In New York