Self-taught filmmaker Michael Jenkins [pictured] becomes inaugural winner of new talent award.

Bristol’s Afrika Eye festival of African film has announced the winner of its inaugural new talent award.

Self-taught filmmaker Michael Jenkins won with a proposal for a documentary about the use of blackened faces in English folk customs, including Padstow’s Boxing Day parade.

Jenkins receives a £400 script research and development bursary from the festival, as well as mentoring and production support from the competition’s judges: RCA’s Karen Alexander, B3 Media’s Martin Boothe, Afrika Eye’s co-founder Ingrid Sinclair and Laura Marshall, MD of Icon Films, Bristol.

This year’s Afrika Eye festival also included sold-out screenings of Nairobi Half Life and Something Necessary, alongside the world premiere of Simon Bright’s latest documentary The King and The People.

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