“Travel brings people together, as we all sit down and have a wonderful meal. You may not know the person sitting next to you but you are sharing a common experience. In that sense, food unquestionably is a universal language.”
Jordan Sclare Global Chef
Our Founders
Fifth Taste Films unites the worlds of food and filmmaking to create cinematic stories that resonate. We dive into the origins of flavour, capturing adventure, culture, and people through every bite. Our films blend buddy-road-trip energy with the gastronomic insight of Bourdain at his best, delivering premium content that entertains, surprises, and expands the palate.
​
Fifth Taste Films is run by award-winning filmmakers Alex Emanuel and Donna Blackburn primarily creating films hosted by globally renowned restauranteur Kurt Zdesar and visionary executive chef Jordan Sclare . We also take the same expertise and make films for many other clients and brands.
​
Fifth Taste Films is a unique collaboration between two worlds: An alliance of entrepreneurs, chefs, filmmakers, producers, and marketers — each accomplished in our own right — united to build the bold new food-adventure brand the industry has been waiting for.
​
Meet The Team
Film Maker
Alex Emanuel
An experienced producer/director, Alex's works ranges from filming , producing and directing C4 Untold ‘The Secret World of Fight Clubs' , to David Baddiel presented ‘’Jews Don’t Count’ exploring the political blindspot with celebrities from Stephen Fry to David Schwimmer to Emmy nominated ‘Secrets of the Solar System’ and drama short ‘ the Storyteller; which won Best World Short at the New York Soho International Film Festival.
​
Alex specialises in capturing intimate actuality footage with vulnerable people in sensitive environments, with authentic and honest insights - filming "After the Wave" just 6 weeks after the 2011 Japanese tsunami to the extraordinary BBC Africa undercover investigation 'Sweet Sweet Codeine: Nigeria's cough syrup crisis "
He is multi skilled - shooting and directing as well as writing and editing - a rare thing . With a wealth of experience in capturing culinary journeys on film, Alex brings a unique creative perspective to our projects.
Film Maker
Donna Blackburn
Donna has managed over 230 hours of major Broadcast television including the Royal Television Award winning digging up Richard III : The King in the Carpark , blowing up planes and parbuckling the Costa Concordia for fast turnaround investigative docs, running 3 seasons of the vast 25-part obs doc series ‘Gold Rush’ with multiple teams shooting for 6 months at a time and ambitious Space, engineering and medical docs including Emmy nominated ‘Secrets of the Solar System’ and the recent 90 min 'Linford' Feature doc for BBC1 primetime .
​
Donna also ran Darlow Smithson Productions (DSP) first Corporate & Ad Funded Unit producing short films on topics like oil rigs, mine clearance, and conservation projects and has successfully led branded and corporate teams and films for major companies from Aston Martin, John Lewis and Unilever to Virgin Galactic, Turkish Airlines , energy companies and Red Bull.
