Former student onscreen in black comedy

Aside from the reaction of those portrayed in the film, Stewart said he has received positive feedback.

Rotten Tomatoes, a website that aggregates movie reviews and calculates an average review score, rates “Bernie” at 89 percent among critics, indicating acclaim.

Although he was unable to attend the premiere June 16, 2011, at the Los Angeles Film Festival, Stewart attended its showing March 14 at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, where he said attendees pointed him out in the crowd after the showing.

After the film’s limited release April 27 and wide release May 4, the former radio-television-film major said he attended a showing with friends. After the film finished, a man sitting in the same row recognized Stewart.

“The guy just looked over and said, ‘Wow!’” Stewart said. “Even though I had a small part, how often are you in the same theater as someone who’s in the movie you’re watching?”

Despite the wishes of his father, Charles “Doc” Stewart, a former DJ at KSEL 950 AM in Lubbock, Stewart decided to pursue music as a career.

“Father said, ‘Charlie, you’ve got to get into a legitimate job like pimping: There are fewer prostitutes and more money,” Stewart said.

Stewart attended this college intermittently from 1985 to 1995.

During that time, he volunteered as a DJ at KSYM 90.1 FM, this college’s radio station, where he made contact with musical acts, and began booking musical acts at clubs around San Antonio, experiences that helped him when he established Handshake Management in 1995.

“If there’s anything I have to say, it’s that SAC changed my life, even though I never received a degree,” Stewart said. “It formed the foundation of what my life has become. I can’t be more emphatic about it.”

“Bernie” is showing through July 5 at Santikos Bijou Theatre at 4522 Fredericksburg Road and through June 28 at Regal Fiesta Stadium 16 at 12361 Vance Jackson Road and is also available for pre-order at www.amazon.com.