How to Draw a Bunny
{{Infobox film
| name = How to Draw a Bunny
| image = How_to_draw_a_bunny.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| director = John W. Walter
| producer = {{ubl|Steve Apicella|Frances Beatty|Rocky Collins|Kevin Foxe|Lianne Halfon|John Malkovich|Andrew L. Moore|Russell Smith}}
| writer =
| starring = {{ubl|Joseph Ialacci|Richard Feigen}}
| music = Max Roach
| cinematography = {{ubl|Frank G. DeMarco|Andrew L. Moore}}
| editing = John W. Walter
| studio = {{ubl|Palm Pictures|Mr. Mudd Productions}}
| distributor = Artisan Entertainment
| released = {{Film date|2002}}
| runtime = 90 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
| budget =
| gross = $4,148[http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2004/0HTDB.php The Numbers.com]
}}
How to Draw a Bunny: A Ray Johnson Portrait, is a 2002 American documentary film about the Detroit-born pop, collage and performance artist Ray Johnson.[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/arts/design/art-documentaries-streaming-virus.html 15 Documentaries That Inside an Artist's Head - The New York Times]
Summary
Filmmakers John Walter and Andrew L. Moore delve into the mysterious life and death of Johnson, an artist whose “world was made up of amazing coincidences, serendipities and karmic gags,” according to Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times.{{cite news|last1=Kimmelman|first1=Michael|title=A Collage in Which Life=Death=Art|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/06/movies/art-archiecture-a-collage-in-which-life-death-art.html|access-date=31 August 2015|work=The New York Times|date=October 6, 2002}} After Johnson's suicide, Moore and Walter conducted interviews with artists including Christo, Chuck Close, Roy Lichtenstein, Judith Malina, and James Rosenquist. In addition, they gathered photographs, works of art, and home movies, which were edited into a fast-paced narrative exploring the artist's life.{{cite web |title=How to Draw a Bunny |date=2002-02-09 |website=Variety |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210606163445/https://variety.com/2002/film/awards/how-to-draw-a-bunny-1117916955/ |archive-date=2021-06-06 |url-status=live |url=https://variety.com/2002/film/awards/how-to-draw-a-bunny-1117916955/}}[https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/how-to-draw-a-bunny/Film?oid=1053674 Chicago Reader][https://magazine.artland.com/captivating-artist-documentaries-to-enjoy-at-home/ The Storytellers’ Stories: The Best Documentaries About Artists|Artland Magazine]
Reception
The filmmakers “couldn’t have chosen a more elusive subject for a movie; their success in evoking Johnson, and in documenting his world, is a triumph of sympathy over psychology, memory over historicism,” wrote Stuart Klawans for The Nation.{{cite web|last1=Klawans|first1=Stuart|title=License to Kill|url=http://www.thenation.com/article/license-kill/|website=The Nation|access-date=31 August 2015|date=October 28, 2002}}
The film has a score of 78 on Metacritic.[https://www.metacritic.com/movie/how-to-draw-a-bunny Metacritic]
Accolades
The film premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize.[https://www.filmaffinity.com/us/film149975.html FilmAffinity] The film also won the Grand Prix du Public 2002 at the Rencontres Internationales de Cinema in Paris and was nominated for a 2003 Independent Spirit Award and listed in New York Magazine’s “Top Ten of 2004.”{{cite web|title=How to Draw a Bunny|url=http://www.rayjohnsonestate.com/films/how-to-draw-a-bunny|website=The Estate of Ray Johnson|access-date=31 August 2015}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|0303348}}
- {{rotten-tomatoes|id=how_to_draw_a_bunny|title=How to Draw a Bunny}}
- [https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9507E4DD113BF93AA35753C1A9649C8B63 New York Times film review]
- [https://vimeo.com/110857936 The entire film officially posted by BASEBALZAC on Vimeo]
Category:Documentary films about visual artists
Category:2002 documentary films
Category:American collage films
Category:American documentary films
Category:2000s English-language films