Dayton filmmaker: ‘They told my parents I would never read or write’

‘My mother was the one who worked with me when I got home from school. They kept fighting for me,’ Evie Marie Warner said of her parents.

Credit: screen grab courtesy of Evie Marie Warner

Credit: screen grab courtesy of Evie Marie Warner

If her parents had accepted what people told them, Evie Marie Warner says she would not be making films today.

The West Carrollton resident said she wouldn’t be doing a lot of things.

"When I was little, they told my parents I was mentally 'retarded,' and they told my parents I would never read or write," said Warner, who is a Cassano's Pizza and Subs call center representative when she is not making films. "I wasn't supposed to go to college at all. I got written off by the school system."

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Warner said things don’t always come easy for her — math in particular. But she is bringing her stories to life for the screen.


The owner of RenRaw Films plans to start filming  "Super Z and Friends," a three part comedic webseries, this weekend in a spaces she is renting in the Davis-Linden Building.

The past five or so years, Warner has written, produced and/or directed a list of short, super-low budget films (a few hundred dollars and lots of imagination) that includes “But I am an Actress,”  “As it Appears” and “15 Minutes.”

She is considering making “15 Minutes,” a story that centers around a male rape victim, into a feature film. In 2017, “But I am an Actress” was shown at film festivals in Tampa Bay, Indiana and San Francisco.

“Right now, I am kind of enjoying where I am at the moment,” Warner said.

 

“I hope my story can be an inspiration to others,” said Warner, who credits her parents, Kent and Sheila Warner, for helping her get through struggles with education. “My mother was the one who worked with me when I got home from school.  They kept fighting for me.”

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Raised mostly in the Englewood area, Warner said she was in special education classes in school and received help as a student at Sinclair, where she earned a certificate in early childhood education and teaching.

Credit: screen grab courtesy of Evie Marie Warner

Credit: screen grab courtesy of Evie Marie Warner

The Dayton Christian High School grad also took classes at Wright State University.

Warner said her adventure in film-making started with writing.

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“I had some awards in high school, and I won some competitions in college. I had a crazy idea to write some scripts,” she said. “If I wanted to get this made, the easiest way to do it was myself.”

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She hopes to make “Super Z” available on Amazon.

It is a parody of superhero movies like “The Flash,” “Superman” and “Spider-Man,” where the hero has dead parents.

Zoe, the protagonist played by local actress Autumn Hatcher, tries to leave the superhero life behind after learning she has been manipulated.

“It sounds really serious, but it is not,” Warner said. “It is really a comedy.”

Credit: screen grab courtesy of Evie Marie Warner

Credit: screen grab courtesy of Evie Marie Warner

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