Time lapse of my portrait of NBA and Los Angeles Laker Legend Kobe Bryant. You can read about the story behind this painting in my previous post. 12”x16” Oil on Canvas
I’ve written previously about how painting a portrait of someone you’ve lost has helped me process their passing. Painting this portrait of Kobe was no different. I’ve been a Lakers fan since I was a teenager growing up in NZ. When the news broke I actually cried and it surprised me. I didn’t know Kobe personally so why was this affecting me this way?
Painting him helped me process some of that. I was fortunate that I had a reference photo to work from that I owned the rights to. It’s hard when you paint a celebrity because you usually don’t have access to them and therefore you’re using someone else’s copyrighted image of them. But I had an opportunity to photograph Kobe during the 2009 playoffs on their way to winning the championship that year after a producer friend of mine arranged media access for me.
At the end of practice, when all the media interviews were finished, Kobe was just standing at the edge of the court by the exit to the tunnel so I took a few more while he was looking around then he turned and looked right at me. I remembered feeling intimidated by his stare and nearly putting the camera down. I’m glad I didn’t. This was the photo I used for the painting. I liked how it captured that look that so many of his opponents faced every game throughout his remarkable career in the NBA.
While painting Kobe I thought about why I cried and I realised it was that I’m now a father of two boys and my firstborn, Elias, was born not only that same year, 2009, but literally during their championship winning game which, amazingly, was playing on the TV in Joy’s room at the hospital before the delivery kicked into high gear!
I felt the pain of the loss of Gigi as a parent and what that would mean for Vanessa Bryant and the rest of their family. There’s something about the bond between a parent and a child that can only be experienced to be understood in full.
Anyway, thank you Kobe for all the memories and my condolences to the Bryant family and all the other families involved.
Had a wonderful night attending the “Take Home A Nude” exhibition at Sotheby’s NY this week where my drawing was sold. Whether I make a film or a piece of art there is always something magical and affirming about the moment it gets viewed and, hopefully, embraced by the public. It never gets old for me and this week I get to experience that on both fronts as I fly out tomorrow to the Hot Springs Doc Film Festival for another screening and Q&A of my film, “Funny You Never Knew.” My thanks to The New York Academy of Art and Sotheby’s for a wonderful evening.
I’m stoked to announce that, for the second year in a row, one of my drawings has been selected for inclusion in the group exhibition, “Take Home A Nude” coming up at Sotheby’s this month. The event is in collaboration with the New York Academy of Art and Paddle 8. My charcoal piece, “Hand of the Drummer” is open for bids from now until the event at Sotheby’s, NY on October 15th. Charcoal on 15”x20” paper.
You can also see a timelapse video of the sketch on my instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/artofandrewhunt/?hl=en
Funny You Never Knew will be playing at the 10th Annual DocUtah International Documentary Film Festival next month. We screen twice on September 3rd and 5th. Tickets available here: https://tickets.dsutix.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=160
We could not have been happier with the UK reception to “Funny You Never Knew.” A great audience turned up and we finished with a lively Q&A with the director, Andrew Hunt and his co-editor Colin Goudie. This screening followed the Masterclass they did earlier in the day which was also sold out. Thank you Glasgow and the GFT for putting on such a great event!
Co-editors of “Funny You Never Knew,” Andrew Hunt and Colin Goudie (Star Wars: Rogue One), gave a sold-out masterclass at the historic Glasgow Film Theatre in Scotland this summer. They explored the director/editor relationship in the making of a film with a particular focus on their collaboration on FYNK.
Funny You Never Knew is playing in Glasgow at the GFT on July 3rd! To all my Scottish friends: Don't miss out!! I will be there and can't wait to see you all! There'll be a Q&A with myself and editor Colin Goudie (Star Wars: Rogue One) so it's going to be a fun night. You can get tickets here:https://glasgowfilm.org/sho…/funny-you-never-knew-qanda-nc-5
Our film is slated to be seen in the grandly named Long Island International Film Expo on the afternoon of Monday, July 15th. Please go to http://longislandfilm.com/event/funny-you-never-knew/ if you'd like to have more details.
The Expo takes place in exotic Bellmore, L.I. which is about 40 mins. from Penn Station via NJT train.
Yes - another award! My co-editor, Colin Goudie (Star Wars: Rogue One) and I won the award for "Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking: Editing (Documentary) for "Funny You Never Knew."
The award stands as a marker to what was an amazing experience getting to work with Colin again. Those of you who know Colin, or have worked with him, will be nodding in agreement here because Colin is just one of those rare human beings who brings all of himself to a project and cares as much about you as person as he does about the film he's working on.
I’ve included some photos from our time at the Newport Beach Film Festival. It was a fantastic Film Festival and we had an absolute ball with both our premiere and repeat screenings getting sold out and each having a waiting list!
Highlight for me, personally, however, was driving Fred Willard and Bill Hayes home after our premiere screening and hearing some amazing stories about how Fred ended up doing the cult classic “Spinal Tap” and the amazing people they’ve both worked with over the years. So cool!
FYNK is playing at the Hoboken International Film Festival on Saturday May 18th at 8pm. Tickets can be purchased here: https://tickets.vendini.com/ticket-software.html?t=tix&e=4d2f5bf59431f219a174cda624877551&vqitq=05ae7b3b-a082-4bd3-92b8-ae7ea701a4b5&vqitp=c5d972d9-959a-4ba4-99b6-1f991a97f51f&vqitts=1557335383&vqitc=vendini&vqite=itl&vqitrt=Safetynet&vqith=98bf0929212ffc7c91ff1adf6045d2b2
Our film just won the Gold REMI award at the 52nd annual Worldfest Houston International Film Festival last night. It’s been a fun week with lots of great movies, networking and even a trip to the Houston Space Center!
After our win at Garden State for Best Documentary Feature Film this award for “Best Director of a Feature Film” at the Chicago Comedy Film Festival is a great honor. Thank you Chicago! We’re in Houston this week screening at the 52nd annual Worldfest Houston International Film Festival and we’ve been nominated here also so we’ll see what happens!
One of the many joys of being in the Chicago Comedy Film Festival was that the film reviewer Danielle Solzman saw our film and wrote a review. You can read it here: http://www.solzyatthemovies.com/2019/04/06/chicago-comedy-2019-funny-you-never-knew/
Had the delightful pleasure of being interviewed on Radio by the lovely Patti Vasquez of Chicago’s WGN. You can hear it here:
Our film won Best Documentary Feature Film at the 17th annual Garden State Film Festival. Feeling very grateful. Photos from left to right: Photo 1) Exec Prod. Camille Kampouris (former muppeteer with Jim Hensen.) Exec Prod. Karl Tiedemann (former writer for David Letterman & Robert Klein. Prod/Director Andrew Hunt (otherwise known as, me! ;-) Exec Prod. Emanuel Kampouris Photo 2) Self explanatory! Photo 3) My wife and I. (I rarely wear anything other than a t-shirt, so enjoy!) Photo 4) Myself and the GSFF founder and director Diane Raver.
Some photos from the opening night at the 2019 Garden State Film Festival where our film had its East Coast premiere.
Here’s our movie poster! Designed by the talented Dez Robertson. For more information about the film go to https://www.funnyyouneverknew.com/
Happy to announce our inclusion in 2019’s Worldfest Houston International Film Festival. We’ll be screening on the evening of April 7th so do come along if you’re around. We’ll be there! Tickets can be purchased here: https://worldfest.org/ and for more information about the film itself go to https://www.funnyyouneverknew.com/
We’ve been selected for the ninth annual Chicago Comedy Film Festival 2019 and we’re screening on Friday night, April 5th. I’ll be flying in from New York for it so come see the film and say hi! You can get tickets here: https://www.chicagocomedyfilmfestival.com/ and for more information about the film go to https://www.funnyyouneverknew.com/