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Emmy Nominated Producer Writer And Director Andre Gaines Triumph Jesse Owens And The Berlin Olympics

Executive produced by LeBron James and narrated by Grammy award-winning actor Don Cheadle, and directed by two-time Emmy nominee Andre Gaines, the new HISTORY Channel documentary will showcase Jesse Owens’ historic triumph over Nazi Germany during the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Set during the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, and just three-years before the start of WWII, African American track and field athlete Jesse Owens took the world stage and launched into international fame by making Olympic history after winning four gold medals in the 100-meter dash, long jump, 200-meter dash and 4x100-meter dash. This feat made him arguably one of the greatest and most impactful athletes of all time. “Triumph: Jesse Owens and the Berlin Olympics” will explore the dramatic tale of Owen’s athletic dedication, perseverance, and triumph over Hitler’s Aryan supremacy agenda and his resilience against racism both abroad and at home in the U.S.

Duration:: 13m
Broadcast on:: 13 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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Visit belco.org or stop by any Belco branch, membership eligibility required, equal housing opportunity, all own subject to approval, insured by NCUA. Belco, banking for everyone. Hello and good morning, Andre. How are you doing today? Good. How are you? Absolutely blessed to have an opportunity to talk with you because you're doing something that I just truly believe in, and that is preserving the history of the real story. What you're doing here is you're creating the impact. We've always had these old newsreels. Oh, you give us the story this time. Yeah, I mean, there's so much drama in those newsreels, buried behind those newsreels that that's really as a filmmaker, as a documentary storyteller. That's really where there's an opportunity. I kind of look for that opportunity, look forward to that opportunity of taking some of these historic stories and really putting them in their right place, almost like a museum curator finds an artifact or something and puts it in a museum. That's sort of something I look forward to. That's exactly what I thought it was. This is something that once it's been displayed for the world to watch, it needs to go into a gallery to where we can watch it anytime, and to experience it all because you push us beyond interpretation of that news reel and the opinion of those newsreels, and that's what's so important here. Absolutely. Yeah, I think with the story of Jesse Owens, as is the case with so many stories of historical stories, is that we really only scratch the surface. We get a fairly superfluous view of what those stories are. They're always relegated to just their accomplishments, but the reality is that we're talking about human beings. These are people with husband and wives and families and children and friends and things that we've all have in our lives, and they just happen to be the best athlete or the best musician or the best comedian or the best in their field. And with Jesse Owens, we really just never got kind of the full story beyond his four gold medals, and that's what we'll be able to get in and triumph in the movie that we made. Well, look at who you teamed yourself up with. Other gigantic people in life, such as LeBron James and Don Cheadle. I mean, this in itself, this shows what kind of energy went into this. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is the second film I made with LeBron James and his team. And after the first film after Jackie, which was about the black baseball players that came after Jackie Robinson after he opened that door in 1947. We immediately started talking about going back in time to Jesse Owens and telling that story and really being able to have a definitive documentary that tells a full bodied story of this great American hero. And Don Cheadle is someone I've known for a long time and was dying to work with and finally found the type of project that really made sense for us to team up on. And so, you know, all of these were yeses kind of immediately, which is a rare thing that happens in our business sometimes, but you know you have something when folks raise their hand to join in. One of the things that we on this side of the flat screen never really get to see when it comes to these athletes is the fact that the perseverance that it took to even get into that moment and the performance of that mind, body and soul of that of that runner, of that person that's in track. I mean, I love the way that you really dive into this and give us that persona and personality. Yeah, thank you. You know, that's the human side I was talking about, you know, what's going on in their heads, what's going on in their minds. You know, it was 21 years old, Jesse Owens. I mean, think about where you were when you were 21 years old. I think about where I was when I was 21 years old. It's like having that level of 42, that level of mental fortitude to actually be able to travel away from your young wife, your young child and go leave Jim Crow America and go to Nazi Germany. You're in two hostile countries and you have to run in front of Adolf Hitler and win. I mean, the description of that does not do the justice of the reality. And that's what we wanted to try to do in the film is bring the audience to bring that story up to the present and bring that reality to present and have people really sort of feel that and what it really meant. And it's an extraordinary thing to watch. We all have somewhere we're trying to get to. As the largest energy producer in Colorado, Chevron is helping meet rising demand and we're working to do it responsibly. Our next gen tankless facilities reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of our operations by more than 90% compared to our older designs. 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Yeah, that's a highlight of our story that was important to tell is that Jesse Owens did not actively sign up to be a political figure. He was tasked with that. He was burdened with that. He was burdened, first of all, with the possibility of boycotting the Olympics and not even going to run. Had he not gone and ran, had he not gone to the Olympics, this story would have not happened because the war was happening. So the Olympics didn't exist for two cycles after that, you know, happens every eight years. So it didn't exist after that. So he really went there to run. He didn't go there to shake Hitler's hand the way that his daughter Beverly so eloquently describes in the film. He went there to run, run, he did, she says, and that's really the first and foremost thing was that dedication, that razor sharp focus that Jesse Owens had that I think made it possible, you know, for him to accomplish the things that he did. He just so happened to be the foremost, you know, symbol at the time and he realized the power of that afterwards. How did you keep your composure while getting these interviews? Because I mean, with what we know in history and then to be right there in front of family members and other people, I mean, I would lose it. I just totally would lose it. Oh, I did. You just don't see it on camera. Yeah, I did. I was, you know, a giddy little school boy and so many regards just because I grew up in Ohio. My, you know, my family grew up in Ohio. My brother went to Ohio State. Jesse Owens is, you know, in my fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha. I grew up hearing these stories, these great legends of Jesse Owens and so having the opportunity to actually tell the story as a professional now was a dream come true and a blessing. So it was, yeah, it was exactly what you described as like I got a chance to sit down and talk to Carl Lewis. I got a chance to sit down and talk to Marlene and Beverly Owens, you know, had a chance to sit and direct Don Cheadle, you know, and finally work with that great actor and work again with LeBron James. You know, it's these are all blessings that are kind of wrapped into a bow of a film that we have the opportunity for the audience to feel that same catharsis and excitement that I was able to as a filmmaker. You got that close to Carl Lewis, a man who also faced his challenges and uphill battles. Yeah, absolutely. And credits so much of his accomplishments are the ability to even attempt to accomplish such things to Jesse Owens. He was able to meet him as a young, young boy. And, and get, you know, to do the same things that Jesse Owens did, you know, and that was kind of my contemporary athlete growing up and then ultimately LeBron James as an adult. Yeah, so it was really great to see these these great athletes at the forefront of being able to tell the story of one of the greatest American athletes, one of the greatest athletes in the world to exist Jesse Owens. Where can people go to find out more about you Andre and your journey to help share these stories and preserve them for the generations that have not been born yet. So I'm on Instagram, like everybody else said, Andre L. Gaines. And, you know, I, as many filmmakers often do really use the tool of filmmaking as the, as, as my platform for change, and my platform, you know, to tell these great stories and to, you know, push a political agenda in some ways, but primarily to educate, you know, that's to entertain, first of all, and to educate right next to it. And so I want, I want these stories and, and stories like it to be consumed by the whole family. They're like two young children, and they watch my films and they're able to really learn an incredible history lesson about while being entertained at the same time. And I think that's the, the, the gift and opportunity that we have as filmmakers to do both. Please come back to the show anytime in the future. The door is always going to be open for you. Thank you. I appreciate that. I'll be happy to come back. Be brilliant today. Thank you. Step into the world of power, loyalty, and luck. I'm going to make him an orphan. He can't refuse. With family, canollies, and spins mean everything. Now, you want to get mixed up in the family business. Introducing the Godfather at ChompaCocino.com. Test your luck in the shadowy world of the Godfather Slodge. Someday, I will call upon you to do a service for me. Play the Godfather. Now at ChompaCocino.com. Welcome to the family. No purchase necessary. VDW Group, boy rep prohibited by law. 18 plus, terms and conditions apply. 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