The audience that turned out for the first preview showing of Mark Jenkin’s ghostly time travel film Rose of Nevada in the Cornish fishing town of Newlyn could hardly have been more supportive and attentive. But Jenkin admitted showing his work to a home-town crowd and taking part in a Q&A in front of people he knew so well made him a little uneasy.
“This is the greatest town in the world,” said Jenkin, who is from Newlyn. “I see Cornwall as being at the centre of the world. But the Cornish screenings are the ones I get most nervous about. I can’t control what people think of the film but I do have a certain amount of control over the authenticity of my work. If a local audience tells me a film doesn’t feel authentic, that would hurt. The Cornish audience is the most important.”
