Andrew Jenks

Andrew Jenks
Montclair Film Festival - May 3, 2015
Born	March 5, 1986 (1986-03-05) (age 31) New York City
Nationality	American
Other names	Jenks
Occupation	Filmmaker
Notable work	Andrew Jenks, Room 335, The Zen of Bobby V, dream/killer, Posterized and World of Jenks

Andrew Jenks (born March 5, 1986 in New York) is an award-winning American filmmaker.

When he was nine, his family moved to Belgium for two years. Jenks attended Hendrick Hudson High School in Montrose, New York. When Jenks was 16 he founded the Hendrick Hudson Film Festival, featuring James Earl Jones as its keynote speaker. The festival is now in its 10th year.

His father is Bruce Jenks, Assistant Secretary General for the United Nations. His mother is Nancy Piper Jenks, a family nurse practitioner who is site director in internal medicine at Hudson River HealthCare in Peekskill, NY.

At 19 years old, Jenks moved into an assisted living facility, starring, directing, and producing the feature film Andrew Jenks, Room 335. While a sophomore at New York University, HBO bought the rights to the film and released the documentary on January 15, 2008. The film premiered in Australia and Europe. The film received mostly positive reviews, Variety calling it 'a lovely and genuine account of generational understanding'. Andrew Jenks, Room 335 is an example of a participatory documentary. Jenks' connection to his subjects makes an impact on him as well as them.

When he was 21 years old, ESPN Films financed Andrew's second film, The Zen of Bobby V. The film received good reviews after premiering at the TriBeca Film Festival.

Jenks said of the pitch process 'It was me and my two friends - 21 years old, telling ESPN, the 'Worldwide Leader in Sports' that this was a story that had to be told -that it was their duty. I think we left every meeting unsure if we were acting our age, or just showcasing our passion'. Due to a dispute between ESPN and the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization over rights of baseball footage the film was removed from United States availability until 2020.

At the International Documentary Film Festival at Amsterdam, Jenks was widely acclaimed as one of the next great American filmmakers, and compared to filmmaker Woody Allen.

In a review for Jenks' first film, The New York Post said "It's almost impossible to believe that a kid could produce a documentary like this. It's a gorgeous, hilarious, sad, wonderful, unblinking look at the joy of life - even at the end of it...Bravo Andrew Jenks. Brilliant."

At the Phoenix Film Festival in 2006 Jenks said of his documentary celebrity, "When you have characters like Bill and Tammy it's hard for your first film not to be a hit. I am lucky."