Memphian Brett Hanover’s feature film Bunnyland will premiere April 21st at the Nashville Film Festival.
Described as a story of “rocks, rabbits, and the last Indian on the Trail of Tears,” Bunnyland is set in a former miniature golf course in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. This particular golf course used real bunnies as obstacles for each hole, and they have turned up killed. A nearby rental cabin has also burned to the ground, killing its occupant. What’s the connection? Well, see Bunnyland to find out.
A reviewer for the Nashville Scene says, “Christopher Guest couldn’t make this up. From the same stranger-than-fiction department as last year’s NaFF favorite The Urim & Thummin comes this profile of Johnny Tasar, the self-described ‘Last Indian on the Trail of Tears,’ a motor-mouthed East Tennessee entrepreneur whose every move has courted controversy with hunters, neighbors, and business partners.”
Does that make sense? We didn’t think so. But Hanover’s 2005 short Above God won Best Documentary at both the Memphis Film Festival and Atlanta Underground Film Festival. Another film, Schiavo, was featured at the 2006 Indie Memphis Film Festival. Bunnyland is Hanover’s seventh independent film.
Hanover, who is currently attending the Art Institute of Chicago, says his work “typically focuses on individuals — subjects of uncommon and controversial character, presented not as curiosities but as lives deserving serious reflection.”
Bunnyland is co-directed by Memphians Morgan Jon Fox and Katherine Dohan, the lead singer of the local band Scandaliz Vandalistz.
— Michael Finger
