Belgian TV seeks ‘Birthday Twins

Bringing Belgians to the Bronx could make for some entertaining, educational television.

The Belgians are banking on this very idea as they look to the borough to help execute their newest TV venture, “The Birthday Twins Project.”

The Belgian production house Woestijnvis is in charge of the documentary series that will introduce Belgian men and women to their worldly counterparts who share the same birthday, with the purpose of exposing them to what their life could have been, had they been born elsewhere.

“For those Belgians, we’re looking for people worldwide who were born on the exact same day and who have the same gender,” Annelore De Donder of Woestijnvis said.

Deemed “Birthday Twins” the Europeans will trek around the globe visiting their foreign family members, discovering to what extent their surroundings have influenced their life.

“For each selected Belgian, we intend to find three suitable twins,” De Donder said.

“This will result in filmed parallel portraits showing the Belgian person visiting three twins in their native countries.”

While they’ve received applications from around the globe including Madagascar, Singapore and the Dominican Republic, De Donder said their experiment wouldn’t be complete without exploring none other than the Bronx itself.

“The Bronx is almost legendary for us Europeans. We all know it from the movies, without ever having been there,” she commented.

“It would be interesting to have somebody to show that part of NYC from an individual, original and intimate point of view.”

While the first Belgian man will make the program’s initial trip to Estonia, Chile and Ghana at the end of June to meet his respective birthday twins, it would be a trip to the United States’ east coast that’s sure to provide a visit of a lifetime.

“An episode of an inhabitant of the Bronx 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 there,” De Donder added.

“A comparison between their opinions on life could give our documentary an extra dimension, we believe.”

The network is searching for men born on the following dates:

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.

Woestijnvis is also seeking women born on: April 5, 1943; May 2, 1950; July 20, 1963; March 24, 1964, March 26, 1975, December 27, 1979 and July 24, 1982.

For further information on the Birthday Twins Project or to sign up, visit www.woestijnvis.be.

Belgian, Bronx, Woestijnvis, documentary, Annelore De Donder, Birthday Twins