In “Bunnylovr,” a slice-of-life dramedy from first-time director Katarina Zhu, a 20-something-year-old New Yorker named Rebecca moonlights as a cam girl after hours of her day job as a personal assistant. But when one of her clients sends her a gift — a fluffy, white bunny — their dynamic takes a toxic turn.
Without getting into spoilers for the movie, which premieres at Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, there’s a precarious scene involving the tiny, snow-colored creature. But Zhu, who plays Rebecca in addition to writing and directing, promises that no bunnies were harmed during the making of “Bunnylovr.” Working with a live animal did, however, involve a “steep learning curve.”
“On the first day we worked with the bunny, it peed on the laptop. That was difficult,” Zhu said at the Variety Studio presented by Audible. “By the end, I understood what the bunny needed to feel comfortable. It was worth it, but you’re in for chaos.”
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Luckily, Zhu wasn’t on her own to care for the animal between takes. “The bunny came with an entourage of seven people. It was, like, two people from the Humane Society, two animal handlers, an animal agent… and there were two bunnies on set, the way you’d have to switch out a child actor.”
Adding to the chaos, “Bunnylovr” was filmed on the always-lively streets of New York City. When Rebecca isn’t behind her computer screen, she’s traversing the Big Apple as she keeps up fraying relationships with her ex-boyfriend (Jack Kilmer), her artsy best friend (Rachel Sennott) and her dying, estranged father (Perry Yung).
“It was cuckoo,” Zhu said of production. “We were dodging people on the street and having people whose mouths were wide open, yawning, in the shot.”
Sennot, who doubled as a producer, feels that shooting on location, in Manhattan of all places, fuels the energy of the movie.
“We were filming a scene where we’d walk by a fire station, and every time, the [firefighters] were like, ‘We’re in the movie!’ We were like, ‘Amazing. So, if for one take, you could not scream…”
With “Bunnylovr,” Zhu wants to examine her generation’s yearning for connection in this increasingly digital age.
“Like most 29-year-olds, I grew up on the internet. I was so online,” she said. “I was interested in exploring the connection, validation and agency that I wasn’t finding in real life and juxtaposing it with the painful, awkward reality of real-life relationships.”