I finally saw John Walter’s entertaining and transfixing 2002 documentary, How To Draw A Bunny tonight on Sundance Channel. Walter–an editor-turned-director–collages together the incredible story of the artist’s artist Ray Johnson, whose life, art, and elaborately contrived 1995 suicide in Sag Harbor were inextricably connected. It’s that rarest of things–a good documentary about an artist.
[Since then, Walter’s done another doc, Some Assembly Required, which also aired on Sundance, about protestors at the Republican Convention. Unfortunately, when it aired around the holidays, its target audience was in a tense stupor about visiting their Republican families.]
Almost as impressive and a definite surprise: Sundance Channel’s awesome on-air identity system. For their program intros and bumpers, they anchor each show on an animated photo timeline that scrolls left across the screen. It’s like a stylized Final Cut Pro sequence, or a storyboard; it rocks on both brand and context-setting fronts. Screencap and credits, anyone?
Watch How Draw A Bunny four more times this month [3/19, 3/30] on Sundance, then either buy it on DVD, or rent it at GreenCine.
FilmForum’s HTDAB page, with good reviews and links
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the making of, by greg allen