Tricycle Talk: Mark Verkerk, director of Buddha’s Lost Children

Last week I spoke with Mark Verkerk, the Dutch filmmaker and the director of Buddha’s Lost Children, this week’s BuddhaFest film (you can read about the film and watch the trailer here). Mark shot Buddha’s Lost Children over the course of a year in the remote regions of Thailand. The documentary, released in 2006, won many awards, including Best Spiritual Film in the European Spiritual Film Fest, the City of Rome Prize, and the Grand Jury Prize AFI in Los Angeles.

During our conversation Mark spoke about how making the film taught him about the true nature of compassion, the challenges of immersing himself in Thai Buddhist culture, and his experiences working with the film’s charismatic star Khru Bah Neua Chai Kositto—a former Thai boxer turned Buddhist monk.