Bunnyland
Press


"Christopher Guest couldn’t make this up."

From the same stranger-than-?ction department as last year’s NaFF favorite The Urim & Thummim comes this pro?le of Johnny Tesar, 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. His Waterloo was Bunnyland, a Pigeon Forge miniature-golf course with the questionable novelty of bonking 	balls around live rabbits; his stake ended in perhaps the weirdest legal challenge of all time, followed by a still-unsolved bunny massacre. Director Brett Hanover listens as 	Tesar, a.k.a. “Johnny Rock,” outlines his woes while showing off thousands of effusively described stone artifacts. The movie’s shot in long static setups that come uncomfortably close to oddball gawking, but Hanover lets each subject talk (and talk and talk) at length—in contradictory interviews that, considering this lawsuit-happy crew, may serve someday as depositions. 

-Jim Ridley, Nashville Scene


"A stranger-than-fiction story . . . " 

. . . of ancient civilizations, bunny golf, pre-fab houses, deception, and scandal. Bunnyland takes us into Tesar's world and all the people in it, for better or worse. Memphis filmmaker Brett Hanover lets everyone speak for themselves - neighbors, co-workers, business partners, tenants and Johnny himself - and deftly weaves a sometimes funny, sometimes mystifying, consistently bizarre look at a slice of life in eastern Tennessee enshrouded in the influence of the one and only Mr. Tesar.

-Nashville Film Festival


"Memphians Premiere New Film at 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.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.

-Michael Finger, The Memphis Flyer