Andrew Jenks: My Adventures as a Young Filmmaker

by Andrew Jenks

Overview

Meet the filmmaker who is the voice of his generation!

Behind the camera, Andrew Jenks has captured the attention of young adults everywhere with his innovative MTV documentary series, World of Jenks. When asked about his inspiration for the show, Jenks said, "I want to tell the stories of my generation. I want to be a filmmaker that is able to capture what my generation thinks, how they act, and what they ultimately stand for."

Now fans of all ages will be able to discover everything they’ve ever wanted to know about Jenks, from growing up to becoming a renowned documentary filmmaker in this comprehensive photo-biography. How did he do it? By following his own rules for success-always be flexible, fake it till you make it, and never accept no.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545417273
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	03/01/2013
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	7.88(w) x 9.12(h) x 0.76(d)
Lexile:	940L (what's this?)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Andrew Jenks is the award-winning filmmaker who created the MTV documentary series: World of Jenks. This is his first book for young adults. To learn more about him and his work visit www.andrewjenks.com.

Read an Excerpt

One million dollars.

Whenever I get good news, I always take a moment to enjoy it on my own. Dahl's news was crazy good, life-changing, I'm-going-to-Japan-for-nine-months-to-make-a-million-dollar-movie good, so I lay on my bed for a long while, savoring the moment before it was tainted with anything real.

I walked downstairs, went into the living room where my dad was watching TV, and laid down on the crummy old white sofa with a huge grin on my face.

"What?" My dad asked.

"ESPN is going to pay for the movie."

He gave me a  look to see if I was serious. His face was stunned. Then he pivoted in his chair and grinned. There's no better feeling than making my dad proud. One of the first things he said was something I will never forget.

“Someone else has now given you money to make a movie," my dad said. "This is real."

Editorial Reviews

Andrew Jenks has accomplished a lot in his life. He founded the Hendrick Hudson Film Festival which is one of the largest high school film festivals in the United States, he has filmed an HBO award-winning movie about himself, he created a documentary called the Zen of Bobby V., profiling the American baseball manager Bobby Valentine, and most recently he created the World of Jenks, an HBO reality show chronicling the lives of 12 individuals. Andrew Jenks is 23 years old. This delightful non-fiction book gives an interesting look at the life of Andrew Jenks- his upbringing and his experiences leading up to the creation of this book. Geared for high school students, this young adult page-turner is fun to read offering interesting, colorful photographs. Each page offers something different with varying font sizes and different styles and colors of text. The writing styles include prose, journal entries, and handwritten notes. This book will make a great addition in a high school social studies classroom or library. Reviewer: Cheryl Williams Chang

Children's Literature - Cheryl Williams Chang

Gr 8 Up—Jenks began making films as a middle schooler, was a misfit and eventual dropout at NYU, and worked hard to make a name for himself. At 19, he decided to move into an assisted-living facility for a few months and make a documentary about it. It screened successfully at film festivals, and HBO bought it. Jenks then became interested in Bobby Valentine's story and moved to Japan to document the legendary baseball manager's life as an ex-pat. Next came a show on MTV, World of Jenks, in which he immersed himself in the lives of people on the fringes of society-an autistic man, a homeless girl-for weeks at a time. Ostensibly a memoir, the book reads like a cross between a professional portfolio and a series of mass email updates from a 20-year-old. Between lists of famous people he's shaken hands with (once Tom Cruise retweeted him!), accounts of his meals ("I'm twenty-three, toasting top government officials and eating Kobe beef, the best in the world"), and endless brags about his own perseverance and abilities (he describes himself and his friends as "everything [Bobby Valentine] loved about the world"), Jenks conveys surprisingly little information, missing opportunities to teach aspiring documentarians anything about the filmmaking process. Pictures of Jenks making funny faces, with captions such as "Bottom right: No idea what I'm doing," saturate the book with unnecessary images and add little substance. Try Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan's Andy Warhol, Prince of Pop (Delacorte, 2004) for a more meaningful biography of a pop-culture artist.—Allison Bruce, Bank Street Library, New York City

School Library Journal

A well-told tale of a young filmmaker's progress. This autobiography--here as in all things, the 26-year-old Jenks is a fast starter--is a steady and revealing window into Jenks' life. With considerable brio, he not only charts his filmmaking precociousness, but tenders what are often aching glimpses into his personality. These range from his challenging youth (as for puberty, "I hadn't become a man but a huge baby") to his present-day whirl of activity. And it is a wonderful thing to witness Jenks letting the ants in his pants get to work. In high school, he was already getting into hot water with his short documentaries for the local free TV station (the pizza guys didn't like him dissing their product). He moved on to highly imaginative works that included a tender portrait of an assisted-living home (when he was 19) and nine months in the life of maverick baseball coach Bobby Valentine (in Japan). From there, he went to an MTV show that documents everything from a homeless youth to horse slaughter farms in Miami, with the emphasis on his determination to connect kids with the issues. None of this was a gimme; Jenks worked like a dog for it all, though obviously with more than a spoonful of native talent. One happy and spirited object lesson in what tenacity can bring. (Nonfiction. 10 & up)

Kirkus Reviews