Jenny Bowen (filmmaker)

{{Short description|American screenwriter and film director}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Jenny Bowen

| birth_name =

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| birth_place = San Francisco, California, U.S.

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| other_names =

| education = San Francisco State University

| occupation = Screenwriter, director

| spouse = Richard Bowen

}}

Jenny Bowen is an American screenwriter and director known for her work on films like Street Music and In Quiet Night. She is married to the cinematographer Richard Bowen.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/158371508/?terms=%22jenny+bowen%22+director|title=Cameras Roll at UMN|date=27 December 1984|page=37 |work=Albuquerque Journal|accessdate=13 January 2019}}

Bowen intended to be an actress,{{Cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/371690071/?terms=%22street+music%22+%22jenny+bowen%22|title='Street Music,' the little film that could |date=1 November 1982 |page=B6 |work=The Evening Sun| accessdate=13 January 2019}} performing in plays while attending San Francisco State University. She later began directing stage plays before becoming interested in sound design.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/460905331/?terms=%22street+music%22+%22jenny+bowen%22|title=The labor of love in the Tenderloin|date=27 November 1980|page=79|work=The San Francisco Examiner|accessdate=13 January 2019}}

Bowen formulated the idea for her debut feature, Street Music, during a production lull in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, where she was working as a recording engineer.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/377681122/?terms=%22jenny+bowen%22+director|title=New level of independent films prompts wider distribution efforts |date=21 February 1982|page=62|work= The Baltimore Sun |accessdate=13 January 2019}} After the success of Street Music, she went on to direct three more films.

In 1998, she retired from filmmaking and founded OneSky for all children, a global NGO that works with orphaned and abandoned children worldwide.{{Cite web|url=https://www.harpercollinsspeakersbureau.com/speaker/jenny-bowen/|title=Jenny Bowen|website=HarperCollins Speakers Bureau |accessdate=13 January 2019}} She has published a book, Wish You Happy Forever, based on her work with OneSky.{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/2014/10/17/how-one-social-entrepreneur-saved-100000-lives/|title=How One Social Entrepreneur Saved 100,000 Lives |last=Steimle |first=Joshua |website=Forbes| accessdate=13 January 2019}}

In 2008, she was chosen by popular vote to carry the Olympic Torch on Chinese soil ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.{{Cite web|url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2008-06/16/content_6761868.htm|title=US charity founder carries the torch for quake orphans |work=China Daily|date=16 June 2008}}