Avenel The Motion Picture (2005) Confederate Pictures
From Dixiepedia: The PC-Free Encyclopedia
Avenel The Motion Picture, a (2005) Confederate Pictures Release, is a motion picture filmed at Historic Avenel House in Bedford, Virginia. The purpose of the film is to dramatize the family and the home, and their views of the Confederate South, which led Virginia to secede from the Federal Union because of the Lincoln Administration's determination to militarily provision Fort Sumter with arms and munitions, in violation of an existing armistice with the Confederate States of America.
The film was also created to release to the public a certain photograph - which cannot be explained in the natural, taken November 1, 2003 at high noon, and in broad daylight, at the home - while filming the opening sequences for Portrait of a Plantation - A documentary of the Avenel House (2003). The photo clearly shows a fully-materialized small, dark-haired woman in a blinding white dress. She was not standing there on the porch when the photo was taken, but appears in the film, notwithstanding...
Click on any Image to enlarge it...
Letitia Burwell, the White Lady Ghost of Avenel, and the last family member known to both own, and reside in the Avenel House, wrote this book, which is available from this site. The exact address:: http://confederatereprint.com/product_info.php?cPath=39&products_id=75
Confederate Pictures' first major work was Avenel the Motion Picture, filmed at historic Avenel House in Bedford, Virginia, and starring Jim Choate in a cameo appearance as Captain Jimmie Breckinridge, of the 2nd Virginia Cavalry Company C out of Botetourt County. While the original documentary, Portrait of a Plantation - A Documentary of the Avenel House (2003), was the actual story of the home, Avenel The Motion Picture (2005) was created to show the period sensitivities and the actual relationship the family had with the Southern Confederacy, and in particular, their love for the Southland.
Members of the Cast as Shown: Chip Addison, Lucretia Jarels, Amanda Campbell, Karen Hopkins, Courtney Barrett, Lisa Kuhnley, and George R. Wills
Rosa Burwell Todd, Fannie Burwell Breckinridge, Catherine (Kate) Steptoe Burwell Bowyer, Letitia McCreery Burwell, Mrs. Francis Burwell, Edgar Allan Poe (Dr. John Kunley), Captain Joshua Thomas Beauregard, and Master Notorious Portefoy
In this film, there are two composite characters who represent the value systems these people held in their lives. One of these is Captain Joshua Thomas Beauregard, (who is based upon a real-life visitor to the home, Captain Hampton, and several other visitors). This man is the personification of the Southland, (i.e., he is the South, in human form) and represents the thoughts and feelings that the family have for the Confederacy. Each family member responds to Beauregard as he or she would respond to the Southern Confederacy, itself. The other composite is Notorious Portefoy, and his accomplice, Jonathan Segacious, who bring to the home the antithesis of Beauregard, and the negative values of the Southern riverboat gambler. In this way, the family is shown interacting with the two predominant lifestyles of the Southern Man, and their reactions to each. Here are some scenes from the two hour motion picture. All the other characters are from real life, and a portion of Letitia Burwell's lines are from her diary. It will be noted that Beauregard, in the movie, is originally a member of the 2nd Virginia Cavalry, and is (still) wearing his original 'Union' blue Uniform. He is first seen in 1858, when everyone in the military was wearing blue...and then during the war, he is either dressed in blue, or as a civilian. He is wearing his original blue uniform for a reason...
He is, in fact, a Confederate double agent in the film, and undercover, he portrays a fictitious Union Captain Bartholomew, who is charged with rounding up deserters from the Union army, and is on 'special assignment from Mr. Lincoln'. In reality, he is a spy for the Confederate government, and he works for General Thomas Jonathan Jackson, and is actually bringing information concerning Union troop movements back to the Confederate lines.
Elisabeth Ashleigh (Chidester) meets Notorious Portefoy, the famous riverboat gambler. NOTE: The actress Elisabeth Ashleigh is actually Elizabeth Ashleigh Chidester, Jonathan Segacious' (Jim Chidester's) daughter and it was she who wrote, produced, and played the instruments on the soundtrack of THE GREAT SACRIFICE OF PRESIDENT JEFFERSON DAVIS, and she gave us her album, 03:00 HOURS, as the official soundtrack to that film. Portefoy also played young Jefferson Davis and Lisa Kuhnley (Lettie Burwell) played Mrs. Varina Jefferson Davis in SACRIFICE. Former Governor John Buchanan Floyd (William Traylor) is greeted by Lucinda Burwell (Janet Carper). Jonathan Segacious (Jim Chidester) and his associate, Notorious Portefoy (Chip Addison, who also plays young Jefferson Davis in THE GREAT SACRIFICE OF PRESIDENT JEFFERSON DAVIS) conspire. And the Confederate spy, Captain Joshua Thomas Beauregard (George Roland Wills) returns to claim the hand of Letitia Burwell (Lisa Kuhnley) ... sort of... after a very extended absence... and Captain (also known as Doctor Bowyer) saves a Yankee Colonel named POWELL from retribution from eight drunken rebels, and Avenel House does not get burned down during Hunter's Raid as repayment for this favor. (Captain Bowyer was Kate's Husband...). Captain Bowyer is Jimmy Boykin and Gene Bryant is Colonel Powell in this scene...
YOU TWO! THROW DOWN YOUR WEAPONS AND RIDE INTO OUR LINES! Captain Tarkenton of the 45th New York demands the immediate surrender of two suspected spies caught riding through a field. The Death of Captain Jimmie Breckinridge (Jim Choate, General Bernard Elliot Bee from GODS AND GENERALS), and the South (Captain Beauregard) , at the Battle of Dinwiddie Courthouse, when he, and the South, ride full bore into the Yankee lines, guns blazing, and committing suicide. And the women they left behind... Rosa Burwell Todd, Kate Burwell Bowyer, and Fannie Burwell Breckinridge, (who preceded Jimmie in death, and whose death from typhoid fever inspired his ride into glory). Letitia Burwell never married, once she lost her beloved Southland. She and Lucinda are buried side by side in the family plot.
NOTE: While filming PORTRAIT OF A PLANTATION, on November 1, 2003, at high noon and in broad daylight, an unidentified woman was photographed standing on the Southeast corner of the porch, not ten feet from several other people. The woman was not there at the time, but appears there, in the photograph, notwithstanding. We believe that she is the White Lady Ghost of Avenel, and fits the description history gives us of Letitia Burwell. She has dark brown hair, beige skin tone, and is also wearing a blinding white period dress... She is fully materialized. Those who claim to have seen this ghost identify this photograph as being the entity they saw. This movie was conceived and created in order to present this photograph to the public. THIS PHOTO IS PART OF THE MOVIE AND IS RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC IN THIS FILM, AVENEL THE MOTION PICTURE. (This photograph will only be released in this film; no hard copies). $35.00 Postage Paid.
Meeting Miss Lettie (the fabulous Lisa Kuhnley, who would go on to play Mrs. Varina Jefferson Davis in The Great Sacrifice of President Jefferson Davis), and dealing with Mrs. Burwell, (played beautifully by Karen Hopkins) ...
Edgar Allan Poe visits Avenel, and his old friend from UVA, Mr. William M. Burwell (played convincingly by Tom Baker) in a flashback to 1845 (Poe is played by Dr. John Kuhnley, who performed the epic 1845 poem, The Raven - from memory). While it is known that Edgar Allan Poe was friends with William M. Burwell, and did attend UVA with him, and did write the poem, The Raven, and did tour the country performing this poem publicly, and is said to have visited Avenel House, (and even was supposed to have given Burwell advice on how to build the place, using stones from the original Avenel Castle in Scotland, as part of the foundation), the depiction we present herein is a possibility, not an actual known event... ...and the only surviving photograph of Captain (and finally, Major) J.T. Beauregard in his 'real' Confederate Army uniform... (Because of his work in espionage, he always retained the social title of "Captain Beauregard" to avoid confusion).
