Avenel The Motion Picture
Avenel the Motion Picture is a 2005 film based upon the true history of Avenel house. Miss Letitia Burwell meets Captain Joshua Thomas Beauregard of the Second Virginia Cavalry Co. C. Captain Beauregard is based upon a Captain Frank Clarke, who was engaged to Letitia Burwell, and a Captain Hampton, both of whom were popular visitors at Avenel house. Beauregard's best friend is Captain Jimmie Breckinridge, who was Letitia's brother-in-law through his marriage to her sister, Fan. They are like brothers, having grown up together between Bedford county, and Botetourt county, Virginia.
Avenel House, subject of the 2003, 2008, and 2009 documentary series, Portrait of a Plantation.
Avenel the Motion Picture was filmed on location here at Historic Avenel House, now a Civil War Trails Marker destination.
Theme from Avenel the Motion Picture by M. Raetzel. Theme for Confederate Pictures Films by Kevin MacLeod. Incidental and transitional theme music by Clinton R. LeFort, Darren Wolbold, and others. The "Return of Captain Beauregard" Theme by Misha Kolesoski.
Although this version of the scene "Bowyer saves Avenel" is from Portrait of a Plantation, the same scene, from a different camera angle, is also in Avenel the Motion Picture.
Cast include: Mark Femrite (with Hammer). Bobby Compton, Barry Cornett, Leland Hedrick, Patrick Jarvis, Joel Barnes, and Elliot Martin. Col. Powell (POW) played by Gene Bryant. Captain Thomas Bowyer played by Jimmy Boykin.
The young girls depicted in this scene do represent Letitia, Kate, and Rosa from PORTRAIT OF A PLANTATION. Jenni Shumate, Irene Shumate, and Rebecca Waters were the original girls chosen for these roles for the 2003 (2008, and 2009) documentary.
Lisa Kuhnley, Amanda Campbell, and Lucretia Jarels would be their counterparts in Avenel the Motion Picture. This scene in Avenel the Motion Picture is told in real time, and not as a flashback.
The Death Scene was taken from the real-life death of Captain Jimmie Breckinridge. It is historically accurate save for the presence of Captain Beauregard. Beauregard's presence can be justified in this way; he is the literal personification of the Southland. This 'Southland' literally died with Captain Breckinridge in April of 1865 at the Battle of Dinwiddie Courthouse. The suicide theme may also be a conjecture, but it is generally believed that his ill-fated ride was a suicide over the death of his wife, Fan Burwell, from typhoid fever. Jim Choate (General Bernard Elliott Bee from GODS AND GENERALS) plays Captain Jimmie Breckinridge. Captain Joshua T. Beauregard is played by George Roland Wills. (In this scene, I am riding the horse he rode in GODS AND GENERALS).
