Biography+of+Andrew+Jenks

Becca Hooker Media Studies **__ Andrew Jenks: Documentary Film Maker __** On March 5th 1986 Bruce Jenks and Nancy Piper Jenks welcomed their son, Andrew Jenks into the World. At age nine the family up-rooted to Belgium. Here they resided for two years due to Bruce’s job as an Assistant Secretary General for the United Nations. Andrew’s mom makes a living as a family nurse practitioner. Currently his brother is a senior at Elon College in North Carolina. At a young age Bruce and Nancy could tell that Andrew was talented in terms of filming. Jenks attended Hendrick Hudson High School in Montrose, New York. When he was 16 he founded the Hendrick Hudson Film Festival. This is a success in itself but to show the significance it must be noted that the key note speaker was James Earl Jones. The accomplishment of the first annual festival has led to seven more in consecutive years. Andrew’s first film was titled Room 335. At age 19 Andrew moved into an assisted living facility. His goal was to document what life was like when a person is near the end of their life. Andrew not only starred in this film but also directed and produced it. During Jenks’ sophomore year at New York University, HBO bought the rights to the film. On January 15, 2008, Room 335 premiered in Australia and Europe. It then spread to make it in other countries and even got enough praise to be played in theaters around the World. There aren’t many people that ever have the chance to accomplish such a task and Andrew was talented enough to do it at a young age. After dropping out of college Andrew’s full focus was on documentary film making. When he was 21 years old, ESPN agreed to finance his second film, The Zen of Bobby V. In this film Andrew and his crew went to Japan to follow the boss that most of the people of Japan wished they worked for. For 8 months Jenks and 2 of his friends went through their days with Bobby Valentine. He was an American baseball manager that everyone in Japan sincerely loved. He was very serious about baseball and believed that Japan was they last place that still took the sport as a pastime. This endeavor had taken Jenks many years to promote and collect support for. This film premiered at the TriBeca Film Festival. Many baseball enthusiasts love this film because of the new approach Andrew took on reporting the story. His most recent project began on January 2010 when MTV signed Jenks to a new project titled World of Jenks. Andrew simply wanted to tell the stories of his generation. He wanted to capture how they think, act, and what they stand for. To complete this Jenks has been moving into stranger’s homes and living with them for a week. While there he digs deep to find out their past and how they feel about different subjects and different situations they have been faced with up to that current point in their life. All of the people highlighted come from different walks of life and have a completely different story to tell. Viewers are able to travel with them as well by watching the show. **__ Sources __** [] []