Festival Season:
October 2024
Jesse Trevino: The Artist. The Man.
Directors:
Writers:
Randy Beamer
Randy Beamer
Producers:
Randy Beamer
Run Time:
0:56:49
Awarded for the following Category(s):
Awarded Category(s)
An amazing, true story of a legendary San Antonio artist, who lost hist painting and drawing hand in combat in Vietnam, but at the urging of a fellow amputee, taught himself to paint with his left hand. Then, despite constant pain, undiagnosed PTSD, and many personal problems, he pushed himself to become San Antonio’s best-known and most-beloved artist, with works in the Smithsonian and huge tile murals that are now city landmarks, one of them nine stories tall on a downtown hospital overlooking a historic park. He also overcame poverty and discrimination, born into a family of 12 children in Mexico, then raised on San Antonio’s poor West Side. But after winning an art contest in grade school at a local museum, the child prodigy set his sights on getting his work in museums permanently and won a scholarship to the prestigious Art Students League of New York.
Drafted a few months later, he could have avoided military service because he was born in Mexico. But like others in his big family, he chose to serve his adopted country. But he was ambushed three months into his tour of duty, a booby trap and a sniper’s bullet nearly killed him, shattering his right leg and severing nerves to his right hand, which would lead to amputation. Years later, after four wives, five children, and constant battles with those he loved the most, he beat stage four throat cancer, and as he was finally feeling up to new challenges and more murals, another cancerous tumor in his face led to a very risky surgery.
Submitter Statement
I just had to tell this inspiring , amazing story of a legendary artist - who became a good friend - after realizing nobody else had ever bothered to do it, even though Hollywood screenwriters and producers had explored it. An art prodigy who taught himself to paint with his left hand after losing his right in combat in Vietnam, he and I had hoped would document his latest battle against cancer. But during shooting it returned, so the story changed. I wanted the film to be personal and straightforward, but not melodramatic or cheesy, so I shot, wrote and produced it that way, using some, but not too much music, and few graphics and no self-indulgent editing. It’s exactly the kind of positive and uplifting story which inspires me - that I believe can inspire others.
Born and raised in Normal, Illinois Beamer bought his first (still) camera and got into photography at 16, then shot for the school paper and the yearbook he edited
. A National Merit Scholar, he first majored in Broadcast Journalism and Commercial Art at Drake University . But he decided he wanted to be a cinematographer, so he gave up his scholarship and transferred to the USC Film School in LA. Then he changed his mind, realizing LA wasn’t for him and the daunting challenges of even breaking into film there and landing even minor jobs on films that didn’t interest him would take years.
And he wanted to work faster, creating his own stories.
So he returned to Drake where his first week he got a part-time job as a TV news reporter-photographer, then a full-time job the year before he graduated. With a quick offer to become a full-time reporter, he accepted on the condition he could be behind the camera once a week.
Two years later, with several offers to shoot and/or report in bigger cites, he chose a job in San Antonio where he could report and shoot with one of the first professional Betacams in the city- a high-end Sony with the brand new innovation of the tape recorder incorporated into the body of the camera for the first time.
Then he spent more than 40 years in TV news, first as a photographer and reporter, then as a full-time anchor (who still loved shooting his own stories in San Antonio, then Denver and back in San Antonio.
During that time he shot and reported all kinds of stories and specials, from the Civil Wars in Central America to the war in Iraq. From Hurricane Harvey in New Orleans to a Typhoon that devastated parts of Southeast Asia. He also had his own assigned station camera and gear for years before splurging on his own equipment so he could focus more on the cinematic aspect as he continued to shoot more of his own stuff, focusing on positive stories as often as possible.
Finally, after 44 years at increasingly business-oriented, politicized and crime and controversy-focused news outlets, he retired from commercial TV, expecting to focus more on his art, family and - maybe - film.
He was quickly recruited by the local PBS station to anchor a weekly news show, where continues to shoot and air his own stories.
His first documentary, ‘Jesse Trevino: The Artist. The Man’ focuses on a legendary San Antonio artist who became a good friend.
Treviño was born into poverty in Mexico in a family of 12, then raised on San Antonio’s poor West Side where he became child prodigy in art.
After earning a scholarship to the prestigious Art Students League of New York, he was drafted and nearly killed in combat in Vietnam, losing his drawing and painting hand.
Two years in the hospital, even contemplating suicide, he finally taught himself to paint with his left hand. Then he pushed himself to overcome more personal struggles and emerged as a groundbreaking artist , with works in the Smithsonian and huge tile murals that have become San Antonio landmarks, one of them nine stories high on the wall of a downtown hospital.
Beamer was inspired by his friend and decided to shoot some video of Jesse and his latest plans to create massive works. They planned a documentary depicting Jesse’s latest comeback after what appeared to be his second successful battle with cancer.
But soon returned and after major surgery, two cases of Covid and then pneumonia, Jesse died. Beamer was devastated, but decided to put together a documentary on Jesse’s life using the most recent video he’d shot as well as stories he shot on Jesse over 40 years. It aired on the local, then statewide PBS stations.
And Beamer, who learned a lot producing, writing, directing, and shooting this first film, is now working on more, inspired by his friend Jesse, who never gave up.
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