Independent filmmaking is all about doing whatever you can with whatever you have available to you. Sometimes, that even means writing a film that you can shoot entirely in your own apartment building.
That’s what first-time feature filmmakers Ben Jacobson and Mo Stark did, and it took them all the way to the SXSW and Tribeca film festivals. Jacobson’s debut feature “Bunny,” for which IndieWire can exclusively debut the first trailer, is a New York-set comedy about a group of apartment neighbors working together across five floors to hide a dead body. The DIY film was co-written by Jacobson and Stark (who plays the title character) along with friend and collaborator Stefan Marolachakis, and shot in the East Village building where Stark actually lived.
An official synopsis for the film reads: “Bunny is a streetwise hustler working a quick job when everything goes sideways fast. Thrown into a fight for his life, he turns to his best friend Dino for help. What follows is one wild, sweltering summer day and night in their East Village tenement, as the two scheme with a crew of eccentric neighbors to cover up a dead body. With the NYPD circling, chaos reigns as the clock ticks and the heat rises. Bunny’s only goal is simple: survive the night without getting caught or killed.”
“Bunny” also stars Liza Colby, Tony Drazan, Liz Caribel Sierra, Ajay Naidu, and Henry Czerny. The film is produced by Stark, Jacobson, Marolachakis, and Scott Dougan, with Brian Healy, Charles Miller, and Garret Levitz serving as executive producers.
“Filmmaking is 100% a collaborative medium,” Jacobs said in a filmmaker’s statement shared with IndieWire. “It doesn’t happen without everyone doing their job and that starts from the very beginning. We wanted to do a job. We wanted to make something and we were determined because yes I saw it happen and really believed WE could pull it off too. We are here to say WE DID. Whether you like ‘Bunny’ or think it’s bleh or maybe you downright detest BUT if you love movies at least you should know that this is made by people who love movies too. And we were able to pull it off because we said we could.”
Vertical will release “Bunny” in select theaters and on VOD platforms on November 14. Watch the first trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, below.