Artist Ray Johnson, who emerged in the Pop era, was a maverick and a mystery. His enigmatic 1995 suicide serves as a starting point for John Walter's remarkably entertaining and thought provoking film, How to Draw a Bunny, which screened in Sundance's documentary competition. The film's intricate structure mirrors the artist's sly collage and performance art strategies while functioning as something unto itself. Walter took some time to chat between screenings to talk about the making of his film.

Were you aware of Ray's art before making the film?

I'd only seen a couple collages. Of course, once I got access to the estate, it was overwhelming. Every person I met had their own collection of Ray's work-- a mixture of beatiful collages, letters, drawings, and Xerox pieces.

I was attracted to the art work before I was attracted to the mystery of the death. But when I saw the two side by side, I realized it could make a great movie. The mystery of the death could get people to look at the art in a way that they wouldn't otherwise. The art functions with multiple layers of meaning, as a byproduct of a dialog. It also functions as a document of evidence, a clue in the mystery. You could scan the work for clues and then realize 'oh this is very beautiful.'

There's an interesting, humorous tone to the film, something playful in it's structure.

I always try to have humor in my work even if I do it covertly. I did a PBS documentary about Thomas Edison. I did a whole lot of research on him, he's quite a character, someone with wit. I like Brecht, a lot of his ideas about storytelling affected how I think
about storytelling. His championing of episodic structure. There's a little Brecht, a little Citizen Kane in Bunny. I don't like overly linear narratives. They don't have room for debris.

Can you talk a little about your use of music, the inclusion of Max Roach on the drums?

The way I like to use music is not to underscore the emotion in a scene, but to use it as a structural element. It's a way of literally keeping time, of dividing it up and controlling the film. It gives the audience the signal of when pace swings and when it comes back a little. I also use it to draw attention to the collage nature of the editing, I try to give the film a different feeling than a seamless montage style, where you're aware that you're cutting to different elements.

This approach also works as a kind of analog for the aspect of Ray that I couldn't film, the creative aspect. I would have loved to have shot Ray making a collage, show his hands over a lot of different surfaces. Using Max Roach, then become a double for the hands of a master artist.

Have you created a biography?

I view it as a movie that has biographical elements. I think it's more of a narrative portrait. What I'm interested in is people's expression of their own experience of Ray, not fact checking. In a biography, there would be more pressure to psychologize. That's not something I'm very interested in.

Glen Helfand