If you don’t believe in the legendary creature Bigfoot, you just may after watching a young Connecticut man’s new documentary.
Michael Gilbertie’s “Willow Creek” short documentary, 46 minutes long, has received more than 100,000 views on YouTube and counting, in three weeks.
“When I was a kid there was no doubt in my mind it existed,” said filmmaker Gilbertie of Glastonbury. “As I grew I became more skeptical, but after hearing the experts talk during filming in the heart of Bigfoot land, now I’m much more conflicted.”
Gilbertie, who graduated from college in May and is headed to Los Angeles in hopes of making real movies, shot the documentary at the Willow Creek China Flat Museum in Northwestern California, home of the world renowned Bigfoot Collection. Willow Creek is known as the “Bigfoot Capital of the World” because it is located near where the famous Patterson-Gimlin film was made.
There have been sightings of Bigfoot type creatures all over the country and the world, including in Connecticut.
No one knows for sure if it’s simply legend or if there is an unidentified ape/human like entity that lives among us deep in the woods. The descriptions are similar, a 6 feet tall, to much taller, up to 15 feet tall, hairy, human-like creature of 500-800 pounds who makes certain sounds, said to be guttural growls, hoots, and whoops. No one has been able to capture or hunt him or her, but alleged grainy photos of him walking exist.
There is too much evidence for Gilbertie to dismiss Bigfoot as pure legend, he said.
The entity has different names in different regions, including Sasquatch, Yeti, Yowie and more. People saying they are experts have determined by Bigfoot’s musculature that he’s not a person in costume.
Footprints allegedly from Bigfoot have been as large as 24 inches long and 8 inches (200 mm) wide.
Gilbertie brought a crew of four to an interview at the museum with volunteer Eric Nelson and other Bigfoot experts and historians, Tod Samples, and Trevor Miller, who tell anecdotes about sightings, talk about visitors’ anecdotes, and show evidence of Bigfoot’s existence, such as giant footprints cast in plaster.
Of Nelson, Gilbertie said, “Eric is a wonderful guy. He knows the story.” Prior to volunteering at the museum, Nelson was a California highway patrolman of 27 years.
“It’s been really enriching,” working at the museum, Nelson says in the film.
Some visitors believe in Bigfoot’s existence, although it’s never been proven, and others just believe the legend is fascinating, Gilbertie said.
The best part for Gilbertie was being there with the Bigfoot artifacts.
“It was the only moment where I dropped the professionalism and completely became a kid again,” he said. “Holding the casts from the Patterson/Gimlin film was a dream come true.”
It was the people of Willow Creek who gave Bigfoot his name in 1958 when Associated Press broke the story. The entity had been known as the Ridge Walker.
The movie was shot in a day through Gilbertie’s Lexington Productions.
Gilbertie who also shot a short film on The Occult Museum of late paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, said he was fascinated with such subjects as a child and would hit the television first thing to watch shows on the subject, including Bigfoot.
“It was a tremendously interesting afterschool routine,” Gilbertie said. “I would get scared out of my wits.” He was obsessed with monsters, ghosts and Bigfoot, he said.
After hearing the stories at Willow Creek, Gilbertie himself has moved back toward believing.
Gilbertie was swayed in part by Nelson telling him that when he was on the highway patrol and witnesses would recall an accident or some other traumatic sight, and they did it with the same conviction and body language as people who claimed to see Bigfoot.
Asked how Bigfoot could exist without any clear sightings in Willow Creek all these years, Gilbertie said, “I don’t think people appreciate how dense the woods are in that part of the country.”
Some have noted Bigfoot’s similar look to silverback gorillas and have suggested Bigfoot is a similar, yet to be discovered species.
According to Courant archives, last year at about this time a posting on The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization website details a report by an individual who claims to have heard “short duration screaming/long-duration whooping after midnight” in Connecticut on Tuesday, October 17, 2023.
The howls were heard between Botsford and Upper Stepney, according to the report.
The site also notes other “sightings” and Bigfoot-like sounds including by a retired police officer on Lake Zoar and another in east of Bethel where a resident claimed to have observed a sasquatch chasing herd of deer,
There have been others observed midway between Berlin and Woodbridge near Route 15, according to archives.