Screen shot from Christopher Munch's documentary Sasquatch and Us
"Chris Munch's film, Letters from the Big Man, is today the most philosophical story ever to grace the silver screen involving a sasquatch."
Kirk Sigurdson's novel, Kultus is now available on Amazon.com. This entire week we have been celebrating the launch of his book, here at the website and also on the Bigfoot Lunch Club Facebook Page.
Thom [Powell] and I helped to steer Chris towards a deep and meaningful direction. In his usual way, Thom was the enabler. He encouraged Chris to "go there." And since I had just returned from "there," I was more than happy to share my insights.
"There," in the context of our discussion, involved sasquatch as not merely a relict species of hominid, but also as a deeply complex being that quite possibly pushes the boundaries of that magical place between known and unknown technologies. Yes, that's right, we made it abundantly clear to Chris that the rumors about sasquatch and intra-dimensional goings-on were more than merely the wishful thinking of New Age tree-huggers and faerie dust.
As you may know, the rest is history: Chris Munch's film, Letters from the Big Man, is today the most philosophical story ever to grace the silver screen involving a sasquatch. I feel privileged to have been included in the "brain storming" stages of the project, prior to when Chris began conjuring his imaginary world into which his story line figured prominently.
After the film was completed, Christopher Munch wanted to add a bonus feature for the DVD release. The feature would include many of the people Christopher had come in contact with. Watch a few excerpts featuring Kirk Sigurdson below.
"Much later I came to acknowledge a deep and atavistic connection to sasquatch which I am only now beginning to understand, small piece by small piece, even while my commitment to their “cause” grows more steadfast every day." -- Christopher Munch; Writer/Director of Letters from the Big Man
Jeffery Pritchett, known for his radio show ChurchOfMabusRadio.com has recently posted an excellent interview with Christopher Munch, director of the true-to-life depiction of Sasquatch in Letters from the Big Man. You can buy the DVD at the Official Letters From The Big Man website.
Pritchett does an amazing job asking questions that get to the heart of Christopher Munch's journey from script to screen, a few of our favorite questions and answers are below.
1. I have to say your movie about Sasquatch entitled Letters From the Big Man is one of the best Bigfoot films I've ever seen. What was the inspiration behind it exactly?
Christopher Munch: The project literally showed up on my doorstep in 2005, punctuated by a Christmas gift of the humorous book In Me Own Words. Prior to that I had not considered the subject to any great degree one way or the other. I must have had a vague awareness that “they were out there,” and indeed had fond memories of the Ronald Olson 1977 docudrama Sasquatch, which I saw in the theatre as a teenager, and also the famous episode of In Search Of, my favorite TV series.
Much later I came to acknowledge a deep and atavistic connection to sasquatch which I am only now beginning to understand, small piece by small piece, even while my commitment to their “cause” grows more steadfast every day.
After being bitten in early 2005, I took the plunge and devoured every book, every issue of The Track Record, and every prior film that touched on the subject that I could get my hands on. Paralleling my developing interest in sasquatch was an interest in a particular area of southern Oregon where a drama had been unfolding surrounding salvage logging of Federal lands burnt in the 2002 Biscuit Fire. I became fascinated by the so-called Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion, an ancient, biologically diverse, and mysterious land elegantly chronicled by David Rains Wallace in The Klamath Knot, a book that inspired the tone I hoped to achieve with my film.
As I developed the screenplay with an esteemed New York producer, Paul Mezey, whom I had known for many years, various stars (who would have enabled us to finance the picture at a larger budget) hovered around it. Every time I came close to setting the project up, however, invariably I ran up against the unwillingness of Hollywood to think in anything but the most cliché and untruthful terms when it comes to sasquatch. There had been intriguing smaller productions, independently financed – such as the Little Bigfoot series and the animated Legend of Sasquatch with William Hurt – that had slipped in some fascinating and seemingly truthful tidbits of information. And despite its unlikely premise, Harry and the Hendersons played the very important role of defusing monster stereotypes and opening the door to a more reasoned understanding of sasquatch. I believe this is why it is beloved by so many to this day. (Joan Crawford had made the same pleas in a different and campier way decades earlier in Trog).
Because I was seeking at all costs a truthful depiction of sasquatch, it seemed that the best way to do it was against a realistic backdrop, sacrificing suspense if necessary for the sort of detail that would ground my heroine’s emotional journey. Indeed, her journey paralleled mine at every step.
Early drafts of the script were focussesd less on Sarah’s internal life and more on external circumstances, culminating in our hero-sasquatch showing up, messiah-like, in downtown Portland and making a big public splash: a rousing but not terribly realistic conclusion. He even hopped a freight train to get there. :)
2. With all the horrific movies about Bigfoot out there that depict Sasquatch as a horrific creature it was great to finally see a movie that got it right. Who were some researchers that you took from that helped you to make sure you got Sasquatch depicted on screen correctly and especially positively instead of negatively?
Christopher Munch: My first advisor was Thom Powell, whose book The Locals was the one I most admired from my early reading. He very generously took me into the field and introduced me to his trusted friends, Kirk Sigurdson (Kultus) and Joe Beelart. Thom and Kirk encouraged me to put myself in places where I could conceivably begin to have experiences of my own – something which, at the time, I assumed was beyond my understanding or ability. My actress friend Jeri Arredondo (who, along with Thom, Kirk, Kathleen Grevie Jones, Dee Odom, Andrew Robson, and Jann Weiss, is featured in my documentary Sasquatch and Us), also encouraged me to forge further by opening my heart to the mystical aspects of sasquatch as she understood them from her childhood in the Mescalero Apache nation.
A year or so into the project, I corresponded with and met Kewaunee Lapseritis (The Sasquatch People, The Psychic Sasquatch), who advanced my understanding further. As a consultant on the film, he accompanied me in the field and opened a number of doors. I have consistently found his information to be truthful, and if he was ever unsure of an answer to a question, he would never hesitate to say “I don’t know,” rather than speculate too wildly. He steadfastly honors sasquatch. While he has paid a high price for being at the vanguard of “the fringe” over the past 30 years, thankfully “the fringe” is now becoming un-fringe as many others recognize the value of his methodology, and realize that the only way to connect with sasquatch is through the heart.
Close to the start of production in 2009, I began to work with an exceptional interspecies communicator, Kathleen Grevie Jones, whose strong capabilities as a trance medium facilitated a more rigorous communication with sasquatch, and in fact resulted in the voice-over lines spoken by our hero sasquatch in the film. The words are theirs.
For those of you who are not familiar with the Movie the synopsis is as follows:
Following a painful breakup, Sarah Smith (LILY RABE) embarks on a post-fire stream survey for the Forest Service in southern Oregon. A journey down a wild and scenic river leads her to a remote wilderness surrounded by scorched landscapes. Here she first senses being followed by a presence that will not reveal itself. Visitation from the “big man” (ISAAC C. SINGLETON JR.) continues, more overtly, at the remote cabin to which Sarah repairs to write up her fieldwork. A budding romance with a wilderness advocate (JASON BUTLER HARNER) she met on her trip leads to surprising revelations about the government and sasquatch, and conflicting agendas, that force Sarah to take bold steps to protect the privacy of her big friend, as well as her own.
For all you Portlanders, We are celebrating the launch of the a website and the DVD availability at Dig-A-Pony on Sunday the 29th. We will screen a few chapters of the movie, giving away free DVDs and Author Thom Powell will speak, he was a consultant on the movie and is interviewed in the bonus documentary that comes with the DVD.
We were able to get an advance screening copy of Letters and were so pleased with the respect Christopher Munch infused into this magical film about our favorite hairy guy known as Sasquatch. It stands alone as a great piece of film and the musical score is hypnotic, matching the northwest scenery and the feeling that something is safely watching you. As you faithful readers know we have covered Lettes from the Big Man extensively. You can click the following link to read our previous coverage of Letters from the Big Man
Before we talk about the critical acclaim this movie has received, we want to send you to the Letters' Kickstarter Page where you can get the DVD. It gets better, there is stuff for those who want more! Either the options below also gets you the DVD too!
Storyboards are available (a folio of 12 high quality, early storyboard renderings of 3 action sequences that wound up not being filmed)
A Limited numbered signed poster (a numbered, limited edition, 14x22 inch showprint poster for the film, signed by the director, letterpress printed with wood type on a hundred-year-old Babcock press.
This movie transcends Sasquatchploitation, Christopher Munch worked hard on a script and with Creature F/X artist Lee Romaire to achieve a "true-to-life" version of the Sasquatch we all respect. When an artist of this caliber and stature handles a subject we all love so much I think we as a community should support him and the film he created. Buy your DVD (or more) at the Letters' Kickstarter Page.
Below is a video by Christopher Munch himself.
Okay here is what the New York Times said about Letters from the Big Man:
If there is one thing above all that defines Mr. Munch’s work, it is a disarming sincerity, a willingness to risk awkwardness and even absurdity by taking seriously an outlandish premise. Imagining the lost weekend John Lennon spent with the Beatles manager Brian Epstein in Barcelona, Spain, “The Hours and Times” is at once tactful and assured in its conjectures. “Harry and Max” (2004) treats with almost surreal matter-of-factness the relationship between two incestuous brothers who both happen to be in boy bands.
Mr. Munch’s wholehearted commitment to eccentric material has never been clearer than in his new film, “Letters From the Big Man,” a parable about man and nature in the form of a beauty-and-the-beast tale, involving a forestry worker (Lily Rabe) and a sasquatch (Isaac C. Singleton Jr. in a hairy bodysuit and face makeup).
“Letters,” which opens at the IFC Center in Manhattan this Friday, grew out of Mr. Munch’s desire to make a movie in the Klamath-Siskiyou eco-region of southwestern Oregon. “Connection with landscape is a fundamental thing for me,” he said over Skype recently from a cabin he was renting in rural Oregon, not far from where he shot the film. “It’s always a way in — to understand a physical geography and to feel close to aspects of a place.”
This expanse of Pacific Northwest wilderness, with its green mountain ridges and crystalline rivers, is also a repository of sasquatch lore. Mr. Munch’s views on the phenomenon changed as he researched it. As recently as six or seven years ago, he said, “it was not something I had any sense about.” Looking at depictions in popular culture, he found only jokey curios: B movies with titles like “The Legend of Boggy Creek.” But the more time Mr. Munch spent in the region the more determined he was to make a film that aligned with the view of indigenous cultures in which, he said, the “sasquatch is honored and sought out for his wisdom.”
We couldn't have said it better. Buy your DVD (or more) at the Letters' Kickstarter Page. We put our money where our mouth is and bought the $75 package.
Here's a letter from Christopher himself:
Dear friends,
We have launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the home video release of Letters from the Big Man. If you are interested in owning a DVD of the film (and many people have written in about this), we urge you to visit our
Letters' Kickstarter Page
By contributing $25, you will receive the commercially manufactured DVD, including bonus material, prior to its release to the general public. You will only be charged (securely, by Amazon payments) on or about April 1, 2012, if the full funding goal is reached. The estimated delivery date of your disc is beginning of May. There are other rewards available for different levels of contribution, which are outlined on the page.
Thank you very much for your continued interest in our film.
“I have no question of their existence, [I know] people who were in situations where they were living among sasquatch, literally, and had developed a climate of mutual trust,” --Christopher Munch, Director of Letters from the Big Man
Not only is Christopher Munch's true-to-life Sasquatch movie the most respectful towards the Sasquatch phenomena, it is also probably one of the most respected Sasquatch movies. How do we know? Read the newest New York Times article below.
Sporting Big Feet and a Heart to Match By DENNIS LIM Published: November 4, 2011
IN five features over two decades Christopher Munch has cultivated a singular career on the margins of the independent film world. Although his debut, “The Hours and Times” (1991), was grouped with the emerging New Queer Cinema, Mr. Munch, 49, has never fit in with a movement, and it’s hard to think of another working American filmmaker with a similar sensibility or array of interests.
Christopher Munch, the director of “Letters From the Big Man.” If anything, his movies are testaments to private obsession and imagination. From the young engineer who attempts to salvage a Yosemite Valley rail line in “Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day” (1996) to the middle-aged bohemian single mother and former radio D.J. dying of cancer in “The Sleepy Time Gal” (2001), Mr. Munch’s protagonists are all dreamers of a sort. Although his films range widely in their idiosyncratic themes and settings, they are of a piece in their serene melancholy and their loving attention to the unruly details and irreducible dimensions of individual lives.
If there is one thing above all that defines Mr. Munch’s work, it is a disarming sincerity, a willingness to risk awkwardness and even absurdity by taking seriously an outlandish premise. Imagining the lost weekend John Lennon spent with the Beatles manager Brian Epstein in Barcelona, Spain, “The Hours and Times” is at once tactful and assured in its conjectures. “Harry and Max” (2004) treats with almost surreal matter-of-factness the relationship between two incestuous brothers who both happen to be in boy bands.
Mr. Munch’s wholehearted commitment to eccentric material has never been clearer than in his new film, “Letters From the Big Man,” a parable about man and nature in the form of a beauty-and-the-beast tale, involving a forestry worker (Lily Rabe) and a sasquatch (Isaac C. Singleton Jr. in a hairy bodysuit and face makeup).
“Letters,” which opens at the IFC Center in Manhattan this Friday, grew out of Mr. Munch’s desire to make a movie in the Klamath-Siskiyou eco-region of southwestern Oregon. “Connection with landscape is a fundamental thing for me,” he said over Skype recently from a cabin he was renting in rural Oregon, not far from where he shot the film. “It’s always a way in — to understand a physical geography and to feel close to aspects of a place.”
This expanse of Pacific Northwest wilderness, with its green mountain ridges and crystalline rivers, is also a repository of sasquatch lore. Mr. Munch’s views on the phenomenon changed as he researched it. As recently as six or seven years ago, he said, “it was not something I had any sense about.” Looking at depictions in popular culture, he found only jokey curios: B movies with titles like “The Legend of Boggy Creek.” But the more time Mr. Munch spent in the region the more determined he was to make a film that aligned with the view of indigenous cultures in which, he said, the “sasquatch is honored and sought out for his wisdom.”
“Letters From the Big Man” started as a broader story that played out against the backdrop of the controversial salvage logging operation that followed a devastating wildfire in 2002. But after trying unsuccessfully to finance the film as a larger project, Mr. Munch narrowed the scope to focus on Ms. Rabe’s character, Sarah, an artist and hydrologist. Getting over a breakup, she takes on an assignment to do field research for the Forest Service on stream life in a burn zone.
Even though Mr. Munch had traversed the area extensively on foot for months before shooting, there was only so much planning he could do. His regular cinematographer, Rob Sweeney, said that several locations required fairly long hikes. “Often finding a place to shoot a scene, securing it and getting our crew there, figuring out how to stage and light it — that would all happen in one day,” Mr. Sweeney said.
Ms. Rabe, best known for her theater work, described the experience as a lesson in self-sufficiency. They were the smallest of crews in the remotest of settings, and Sarah spends much of her screen time alone. The first day of shooting, Ms. Rabe said, she was dropped from a helicopter in a field while Mr. Sweeney and Mr. Munch observed from afar. “It was a very lonely experience for me, which was exactly right for the part,” she said.
The strange magic of “Letters From the Big Man” has much to do with its readiness to believe in the possibility that sasquatch exist. Mr. Munch is prepared to go further and declare himself fully convinced. “I have no question of their existence,” he said. His circle of acquaintances in Oregon includes “people who were in situations where they were living among sasquatch, literally, and had developed a climate of mutual trust,” he said.
Mr. Munch’s closest collaborators do not share these beliefs. “I’m definitely a doubter,” Mr. Sweeney said. “But Chris has convictions, and they are intriguing.” He added that Mr. Munch was “somewhat seriously” hoping to get a real sasquatch to appear in the film. “But when that didn’t work out, he made the costume,” Mr. Sweeney said. “I think the sasquatch’s agent wouldn’t agree to the rates.” While Mr. Sweeney remained unswayed, he spoke of Mr. Munch with fondness: “Chris has a sweet naïveté along with a piercing intelligence, and that’s an unusual combination.”
Ms. Rabe sees the film as an off-the-grid fantasy, with the big man a possible projection of the lonely, disappointed Sarah. “What she’s really going through, for me, was: Am I going to be able to be a part of society?” she said. “Or do I need to kind of disappear?” While Mr. Munch’s interpretation was more literal, she said: “It was never a disagreement. He loved that I felt the way that I did, and I was so fascinated by the way that he felt. One doesn’t exclude the other.”
Lily Rabe plays a lonely part-time worker for the National Forest Service in Christopher Munch's “Letters From the Big Man.” Before his screening at Sundance in January, Mr. Munch read a letter on behalf of the sasquatch that began: “Do not be frightened of us. We are people just like you.” Reporting from the festival in The New York Times, Manohla Dargis wondered if Mr. Munch “was pulling our collective leg.” He insists he was not (the letter, he said, was procured through an animal communicator). “It’s very easy to write it off as New Age pablum, but that actually is what they keep drilling into us,” he said.
Mr. Munch recognizes that such talk opens himself up to dismissal or hostility. Nonetheless, “the ideas of the film are heartfelt, and they’re borne out by personal experience, not based on some unreasoned belief,” he said, adding that he comes from a family of scientists — his father was an astrophysicist — and is not generally prone to mysticism.
His own views aside, Mr. Munch said he was careful to make a film “that does work as a metaphorical comment on our society.” The myth of the sasquatch, he added, “represents a longing to make sense of whatever it is that’s incomplete in us” — an urge palpable in all his films.
Mr. Munch admitted that he sees in Sarah’s frustration with mainstream society some of his own conflicts, having toiled for years as an independent artist in an increasingly inhospitable environment. “Twenty years ago I think I had high promise in terms of some sort of a career and yet not a strong sense of where I wanted to go,” he said. “Now I think I have very little promise of a career but a very strong sense of what I want to make.” SRC: New York Times
you may have read our ongoing coverage of the Christopher Munch directed movie Letters from the Big Man. Recently we connected with the creature and character effects artist of the Sasquatch from the movie (see photo above). The artist is Lee Romaire, and his creature shop is aptly named Romaire Studios. Lee was nice enough to answer a few questions, but before we get to the interview lets check out Lee's work in action.
BLC: Lee thanks for letting us have this interview, we are big fans of your craft and have a lot of respect for the art you create. How were you approached to do letters from the Big Man? Had you had a prior relationship to Christopher Munch?
Lee: First let me say "thank you" for giving me the opportunity to speak about this project. I really enjoy your website.
BLC: Thank you!
LEE: I was recommended to Chris by my friend Kazuhiro Tsuji. Kazu is literally, in my opinion, the best make-up artist in the world, so it was a real honor that he referred me to Chris. At that point, Chris was exploring his options on how to do the sasquatch. I could tell by our initial conversations that he wanted it to be live in a natural, realistic world, and to be 100% believable, which is what really excited me about the project. Sasquatch has always been either been a monster or a clown, but has rarely been portrayed in a natural manner. The opportunity to work with someone like Chris to explore the subject was just too good to pass up.
BLC: I'm sure when some one requests a Sasquatch you already had some ideas, by the end of the final design, what differed from you initial concept?
LEE: If you are a creature/character designer, you have a least 4 or 5 ideas in your head about what a sasquath would look like right off the bat. But I based my design from the beginning on the actor Issaac Singleton. I wanted his essence to come through in the make-up and suit. He has a very imposing presence because he is a big guy with a deep voice. But once you get to know him he has a very gentle side, which is why I think Chris chose him. I wanted all of that to show through the facade, and I think it did, so to answer your question I don't think it turned out too far from my original concept.
BLC: How was the process with Chris? Did he have definite ideas and boundaries, what were you able to add?
LEE: Chris was a really great director to work with. I worked with Brian Henson several years ago on a Steven King tv project, and Chris reminded me of working with Brian in that they are both very very experienced and they were both really patient and appreciative of my input. Making these kind of suits is difficult and frustrating at times, so when you have someone in the lead who is very confident in your ability and allows you do your work, it makes the process much easier.
Chris had some great illustrations that he wanted to base the sasquatch off of, so we used some elements from those drawings. Because BIG MAN is an independent film, we didn't have a million dollars to make a sasquatch, so I had to think very practically about what was achieveable. For example, we couldn't build arm extentions or any sort of mechanical face. Everything had to last throughout the shoot because we couldn't afford to do spares, so we used latex rubber finger tips instead of foam latex, which would have torn on the first day of filming. Little things like that helped make it all happen.
Chris actually asked me in to look at the sasquatch shots he and the editor chose and I was able to point out which ones I thought didn't work from a realistic viewpoint. It i is very rare to have that opportunity like that, where a director and editor want your input on the post look creaure effects.
This was also the first film that my studio had a chance to do digital make-up enhancement. After Chris allowed me to look at the footage, I felt that we could go just a bit further in taking the human element out but keeping Issaac in. So I suggested that we do some digital enhancement. I've done digital enhancement before, but only for my own work. I assembled a team, and we picked the shots that I thought needed enhancing- basically all of the close ups. We enlarged the irises, slanted the eyes ever so slightly and moved the lower lip just a bit. On the big screen it is imperceptible, but very effective. So I consider it a new tool in my arsenal.
BLC: What were some of the inspirations you used to create the final design, for instance did you look at specific primates, Rick Baker stuff, and the Patterson/Gimlin footage?
LEE: My main inspiration was the actor, Issaac Singleton jr. I wanted his face to come through the make-up. I did use a lot of primate reference. At one point we were talking about a more human feel, but I felt it had to have a wild animal/alien feel. The human would come through isaac's eyes. I really tried to stay away from Rick Baker's work and from Patterson/Gimlin footage. The last thing we wanted was for him to look like Harry from Harry and the Hendersons. Harry is a great iconic character, but it seems there are so many bad copies of harry are out there, and it would be insane to try to mimic a suit that cost millions of dolllars with a fraction of that available to us. So I pieced together a new primate looking creature.
BLC: As a make-up artist do you have an opinion on the creature in the patterson/Gimlin footage?
LEE: The only thing I want to say about that footage is that I desperately want it to be real, so that clouds my judgment.
BLC: On your site you have a few jobs that are defined as being done in "record time", was this the case with Bigman? How long did each stage take on bigman, Design vs. production.
LEE: I always want to have more time on jobs. I would have loved to have more time and more money on BIG MAN of course, but you have to deal with the reality of your situation. We had several months, a very open an cooperative director and Isaac was very helpful in coming in for fitttings. Our design process went quickly, it was the production of the suit that took up a lot of the time. Chris fortunately pushed the schedule, so the crew had enough time to get what I think is a pretty good result.
BLC: Some of the things I liked about the design was the placement of the ears, the belly, and the facial hair pattern. Any stories behind any of those decisions?
LEE: Well, I had started the job, and we had already sculpted out the chest and belly. Chris sent me a pic of this horrible sasquatch suit that had a six pack. He said, " I want to avoid this look". I sent him back a pic of our stomach, and chest which was patterned after a gorilla with an enormous belly, so after seeing that I think he was a bit relieved and felt we were on the same page. The ears were small and placed upward to emphasize the size of the jaw. Also, the facial hair pattern is based on a mountain gorilla, but is shaped to really build up the size of the jaw. We had very large teeth in Isaac's mouth, but in the face sculpt, which I did in a day and a half or so, I didn't make the mouth wide enough. But we were able to cheat it
with hair so there is an illusion that the mouth is wider than Isaacs mouth really is.
BLC: Was there anything you were trying specifically not to do?
LEE: Yes, I was trying to stay away from the "monster" look and the "harry and the henderson's look. There are many things that I would have liked to do, like lengthen the arms, change the shoulder set a bit, make his legs shorter looking etc.
but it just wasn't practical for this project. Perhaps on LETTERS FROM THE BIG MAN 2 we will be able to do more.
BLC: Please tell us about your studio, how you got started, past and future projects, what are your influences?
LEE: My studio creates creatures and characters for entertainment purposes, which in include movies, tv shows, and museum and theme park attractions. I am lucky work with a lot of talented artists who help create the things we produce.
Most people in my business loved monster and horror movies as children, and take their inspiration from that. I enjoyed that as well, but I was very interested in fake things that looked real as a kid, and being from the south, I took up taxidermy as a hobby. Being from Louisiana, it was a natural choice for me as a youngster. I practiced taxidermy from age 6 into my early 20's and had people paying me for my work at about age 10. I'm not saying it was good work, but it helped me refine my eye for what looks real. I went to college and majored in advertising and marketing, but there was something missing for me. So 10 years into my advertising career I decided to make a change and work on make-up effects in Hollywood. And I've done a lot of creatures and characters since then.
I am currently making my first short film entitled LET'S EAT LOLLY, that includes a lot of creatures and effects that my studio created. I will see it completed by the end of this year.
BLC: Thanks for the opportunity to do this interview. We have to ask one last question. What is your take on Sasquatch in general?
LEE: I think it's great. It allows us to dream and have adventure and mystery in our lives.It allows us to maintain some of the wonder and innocence of childhood. Although it would be thrilling for the world to actually gain proof positive scientific evidence of the sasquatch's existence, there is something wonderful about us never knowing the truth. In my experience in life, the truth about a thing is never as interesting as the stories we weave around it.
BLC: Thanks again Lee, we hope to you keep us updated on your new first short, "LET'S EAT LOLLY" and good luck with Mr. Lincoln. We look forward to watching for updates on your website www.leeromairestudios.com.
If your in California near San Francisco, clear your schedule for a screening of Letters from the Big Man. You can catch up by reading our previous Letters from the Big Man coverage.
Christopher Munch's critically acclaimed Bigfoot movie will be screening during the San Francisco Film Festival at 4:15 p.m. April 29, Kabuki; 6 p.m. May 3, Kabuki; 7:30 p.m. May 5, New People.
The San Francisco Chronicle's great review below really captures Letters from the Big Man.
'Letters From the Big Man'
USA, 105 minutes
Christopher Munch's ("The Hours and Times," "Harry and Max") latest feature explores the odd, mystical connection between a relationship-phobic wilderness expert (the excellent Lily Rabe) and an earnest Sasquatch (featuring first-rate makeup effects). There is an environmental theme afloat in this beautifully shot film, but Munch isn't in the mood to big-foot us with a message. There are also whiffs of a romance, a sinister plot, even an appearance by Karen Black, in a film that will keep you guessing (and perhaps scratching your head) as the final credits roll.
4:15 p.m. April 29, Kabuki; 6 p.m. May 3, Kabuki; 7:30 p.m. May 5, New People.
Christopher Munch has released an official trailer for his Sasquatch movie, "Letters from the Big Man." It does the film true justice.
In the trailer you can really get a sense of what movie critic, James Greenberg of the Hollywood reporter means when he says:
"Sarah is unpredictable, prickly and given to frenetic exercising as if she were trying to exorcise her own demons. So when she chooses to deepen her communication with these magical creatures, it's not surprising since she is magical herself.
The exquisite natural light captured by cinematographer Rob Sweeney and a sweeping score by the chamber group Ensemble Galilei helps make the magic seem plausible. But it's Rabe who you really can't take your eyes off of."
Read the rest of the review below:
This is clearly not a creature feature made for everyone, but for a fortunate few, it will feel like a cleansing in nature.
PARK CITY -- The myth of the Sasquatch has intrigued filmmakers for years, but the creature has always been depicted as a kind of a wooly monster. Not surprisingly, iconoclastic director Christopher Munch has taken a different tack in Letters From the Big Man. His Sasquatch is a more evolved creature with mystical communication skills. Such an interpretation might seem airy-fairy were it not rendered with such earnestness and filmmaking skill. This is clearly not a film made for everyone, but for a fortunate few, it will feel like a cleansing in nature.
As his leading lady, Munch had the inspiration to cast the sprite-like Lily Rabe. As Sarah Smith, a Forest Service worker on the rebound from a broken relationship, she is in almost every scene and commands the film with her presence. Retreating to the wilderness of Southern Oregon to lick her wounds and survey post-fire damage, Sarah starts to have the feeling she's being followed. Although she doesn't see it at first, Munch isn't going for suspense here and promptly reveals a dignified hairy creature with soulful eyes (played by Isaac C. Singleton).
The big man, who seems to reside between a human and super-human realm, starts to infiltrate Sarah's dreams. She draws what she sees in her mind's eye and leaves scraps of food for her new friend. She hears the Sasquatch's voice as a call to nature. Gradually, she has several close encounters before he reveals himself. The matter-of-fact way Munch tells the story, without gimmicks or special effects, makes it all seem quite innocent.
However, this sweet dance between woman and big man is set against the backdrop of a Forest Service controversy that sometimes threatens to take over the simplicity of the film with a too-complicated plot. Out hiking in a remote area one day, she meets Sean (Jason Butler Harner), a wilderness advocate, with whom she has a budding romance. He has long been battling the Forest Service over the best way to deal with fire damage, and when he gets wind of the Sasquatch, he believes the government will hunt the creature down and turn him into a science experiment. It seems like an idea borrowed from E.T. and is ultimately beside the point. The focus is really about Sarah and the big man.
Sarah is unpredictable, prickly and given to frenetic exercising as if she were trying to exorcise her own demons. So when she chooses to deepen her communication with these magical creatures, it's not surprising since she is magical herself.
The exquisite natural light captured by cinematographer Rob Sweeney and a sweeping score by the chamber group Ensemble Galilei helps make the magic seem plausible. But it's Rabe who you really can't take your eyes off of.
Venue: Sundance Film Festival, Spotlight Production company: Antarctic Pictures Cast: Lily Rabe, Jason Butler Harner, Isaac C. Singleton, Jr., Jim Cody Williams, Fiona Dourif, Don McManus, Karen Black Director-screenwriter-producer: Christopher Munch Executive producer: Linda Brown Director of photography: Rob Sweeney Production designer: Ricardo Herrera Music: Ensemble Galilei, Steven Gates Costume designer: Kristen Anacker Editor: Curtiss Clayton No rating, 104 minutes
There has been preview release of a few scenes from the Christopher Munch's film Letters from the Big Man
Today the New York Times released an article covering Christopher Munch's presentation of his Film at the Sundance Film Festival. Below is an excerpt:
They believe in stories at Sundance, to be sure, usually with three acts, sympathetic leads, closure, teachable moments and sincerity, which makes sense for a festival where filmmaker Q. and A. sessions can feel like religious revivals. Do I hear an Amen for the brave young filmmaker down front? Hallelujah and pass the audience ballot! It’s easy to mock Sundance and its pretensions to purity, but it’s also hard not to be moved when these filmmakers find communion with their audiences. One of my fondest memories from this year was trying to decide if Christopher Munch — who was there with his pleasurably eccentric feature “Letters from the Big Man” and, after one screening, read a letter from the Sasquatch “people” in perfect deadpan — was pulling our collective leg. The polite audience didn’t blink, and neither did he.
It’s possible that Mr. Munch’s film — with its lapidary landscape photography, off-kilter environmental theme and up-and-coming starlet, Lily Rabe, who plays an outdoorswoman collecting samples for a field study and attracts a benevolent hirsute stalker — will find distribution. I hope so. “Letters From the Big Man” drifts a bit after its absorbing first hour, but it’s the kind of off-Hollywood production that still makes Sundance surprising. (Curiously, it was the first of two Big Foot movies I saw. The second, “Sasquatch Birth Journal 2,” from the Zellner Brothers, was a self-consciously crude short that purports, with irreverently comic effect, to show the birth — shake, drop and roll — of one of these creatures.)
Even if its finds a distributor, a film as willfully independent in its vision as “Letters From the Big Man” is unlikely to enjoy the relative commercial success of Lisa Cholodenko’s “Kids Are All Right” or Debra Granik’s “Winter’s Bone.” Both were at Sundance last year and went on to become art-house hits with stories that were, in their different fashions, calibrated for uplift. With its crystal-meth hillbillies, “Winter’s Bone” looks and talks tougher than “The Kids Are All Right,” a winning comedy-drama about a lesbian couple trying to keep the family peace. One reader, responding to something I recently wrote about Sundance, insisted both are corporate products — but really, these are mainstream narratives.
last night we received news from director, Christopher Munch. He wrote, "Our first screening last night went very well. Tomorrow we screen in a new venue."
"What I have found so far is that people have been willing to come to the film with open minds and hearts. This is very pleasing. I will see how it goes over the next few days, and I am going to Nashville on the 27th to show it there."
At Nashville, there is already anticipation building for the screening of Letters from the Big Man. Jim Ridley of The Nashville Scene has high praise for the screening:
This year's film comes from a Sundance favorite: writer-director Christopher Munch, a three-time nominee for the festival's Grand Jury prize. (He remains best known for two of those: his debut feature, 1991's The Hours and Times, which imagined a tryst between John Lennon and Beatles manager Brian Epstein, and 2001's The Sleepy Time Gal, a lilting character study with Jacqueline Bisset's best screen performance.) Munch will appear in Nashville with his new film, Letters From the Big Man, a take on the Bigfoot legend that sounds closer in temperament to Terrence Malick than The Legend of Boggy Creek.
On the Sundance Film Channel website the movie is self described as:
Christopher Munch’s extraordinary films, all of which have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, use quiet restraint to dodge reductionism, allowing viewers to derive the meaning for themselves. Letters from the Big Man is no exception.
In the breathtaking, remote wilderness of southwestern Oregon, Sarah Smith, a hydrologist, embarks on an expedition to conduct a government water survey. An intrepid outdoors woman, Sarah craves a solo journey so she can reconnect with herself and nature. Venturing deep into the forest, she intuits another presence. Gradually, the elusive figure reveals himself to be a Sasquatch, and the two interact tentatively. As their bond intensifies, Sarah finds she must take bold steps to protect the Big Man’s privacy, as well as her own.
You can almost sense the rustling of trees and fresh air as Munch reverently explores the possibility of communicating directly with the ineffable mysteries in nature, fashioning a powerful metaphysical love story with resonance for our times.
We can not wait to see a screening of the movie ourselves this weekend. When a director of Christopher Munch's caliber (there is probably not a director that respects his audience more) takes on the subject of Bigfoot, its like a gift.
Okay fans, this is truly breaking news. A new Sasquatch movie is set to premier at the Sundance Film Festival 2011. Titled, Letters from The Big Man, this movie promises to be the first true-to-life portrait of Sasquatch. Currently we have only received a promotional poster, but we have been in contact with the director and plan to follow up with a trailer as we get closer to the world premier on January 20th.
We can't express how excited we are to see this movie. It has the potential to redefine how popular culture thinks of Bigfoot.
Below, are synopsis of the movie from around the web.
Sarah Smith, an artist and government hydrologist, sets out on a post-fire stream survey in a remote part of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness of southwestern Oregon. In the course of her journey through this ancient and ecologically diverse land, she unwittingly finds herself interacting with a sasquatch man, and a mutual curiosity ensues. As their friendship deepens, Sarah must take bold steps to protect his privacy, as well as her own.
“Letters From the Big Man” • Writer-director Christopher Munch (“The Sleepy Time Gal,” Sundance 2001) returns with this story of an artist and hydrologist (Lily Rabe) who must protect a Sasquatch man (Isaac C. Singleton Jr .) she meets in Southern Oregon.
"Letters From the Big Man" - Directed and written by Christopher Munch. About an artist and government hydrologist surveying a remote part of southwestern Oregon. With Lily Rabe, Jason Butler Harner, Isaac C. Singleton Jr., Jim Cody Williams, Fiona Dourif. World premiere.
Letters From the Big Man / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Christopher Munch) - An artist and government hydrologist surveying a remote part of southwestern Oregon befriends a sasquatch man and must take bold steps to protect his privacy, as well as her own. Cast: Lily Rabe, Jason Butler Harner, Isaac C. Singleton Jr., Jim Cody Williams, Fiona Dourif. World Premiere (Again, no telling how much of a true genre film this is from its brief description, but it involves a sasquatch and Foy would never forgive us if we didn't at least mention it!)
