Hundreds turn out for premiere of “11 Brothers: The Movie” at Warren Central

Published 4:00 am Wednesday, May 22, 2024

By Ernest Bowker

For half a century, 11 brothers have been hard to beat on the football field at Warren Central, and it was hard to beat “11 Brothers: The Movie” for a memorable evening.

Nearly 400 people came to Viking Stadium on Tuesday night to watch the premiere of “11 Brothers: The Movie.” The documentary chronicles Warren Central’s 2023 football season and was shot, directed, produced and edited by Evan Farrell as a student project.

“We killed it. The turnout was great, it was a great environment, it looked great on the jumbotron. I was super happy with how everything turned out today,” said Farrell, who just completed his junior year of high school.

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Farrell followed the Vikings throughout their 2023 campaign, from early-morning workouts in the summer all the way through to their final playoff game and then national signing day in February. He shot more than 600 hours of video and spent nearly as long editing it down to the final 96-minute film.

The movie is a week-by-week account of the season. It includes interviews with players spliced in with highlights. A tribute to assistant coach Chad McMullin, who died last July, is also included. Chad’s son, Ben, was a senior linebacker for the Vikings and was among those featured.

The movie takes its name from the phrase “11 brothers are hard to beat,” which has been used as a motivational slogan by Warren Central’s program for more than 50 years.

Farrell, an aspiring photographer and videographer, produced the movie as a senior capstone project for the ACME Academy. The premiere was shown on the jumbotron at Viking Stadium as the sun set Tuesday evening, and was the culmination of nearly a year of work.

“It’s super awesome. You get to see 10 months of work, finally,” Farrell said. “Everything went pretty much perfect tonight, which is a rare occasion. It’s been 10 months of planning, hard work and everything, and I’m so happy it finished the way it did.”

Warren Central defensive back Roosevelt Harris said he enjoyed the movie.

“Shout out to Evan, man. God gave him talent and he showed his talent to the world,” Harris said.

Those who missed the debut of “11 Brothers: The Movie” can watch it on YouTube. It had already been viewed more than 700 times by late Tuesday night.

And while this project is wrapping up for Farrell, he’s just getting started on his filmmaking career. He plans to head to Pearl this week to shoot video of Warren Central’s baseball team as it plays in the MHSAA Class 6A championship series, and turn it into another short film.

The Vikings will take on George County Wednesday and Friday, both at 4 p.m., at Trustmark Park.

“We ‘ve got to go tomorrow and get back to work,” Farrell said after Tuesday night’s premiere concluded. “Baseball’s in the state championship and I’m doing a mini documentary for them. So it’s straight back to work, pretty much.”

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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