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Making Movies

Dominick Evans, 33, will be the first graduate of Wright State’s motion pictures production program with a significant physical disability.

Evans has spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disorder that results in general muscle wasting and mobility impairment. At 16, he was no longer able to walk. Then when he was 22, he fell in the shower and broke his leg, forcing him to leave Wright State’s theatre program.

Evans moved to Michigan and was largely bedridden for five years. He and his girlfriend supported themselves with a writing and editing business.

“I got to a point where I was in bed and I just said, ‘I’ve got to get on with my life,’” he recalled. “’I don’t want to be that person that’s not doing anything. I have things I want to accomplish.’”

Evans, who uses a wheelchair full time to be independent,  returned to Wright State in 2010 and enrolled in the motion pictures program to pursue his dream of being a film director.

“I made sure I surrounded myself with people who were willing to help be my arms and legs so that I could focus on the creative part of filmmaking,” he said. “But it was hard. It is physically exhausting to be in this program. I thought about quitting. But the professors were really supportive.”

Evans’ senior project film, Inamorata, is about a same-sex couple facing social pressures to change and conform during the mid-1960s. More than 100 people signed up for auditions to fill seven spots.

After graduation, Evans would like to move to New York City and make movies. He wants to tell stories not usually seen on film, such as movies about underrepresented populations.

“I would really like to do something on disability that’s not about disability,” he said. “Why can’t you do a story about someone who just happens to have a disability? That’s more like our lives. Our disability doesn’t necessarily define us.”

 


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