TV Skeptic: 'Bigfoot: The Definitive Guide'

The review(s) are/is in. Ed Stockly at the Los Angeles Times took the time time to share his opinion of The History Channels's Bigfoot: The Definitive Guide. Below is an excerpt from his article followed by a link to his full review.

And for dessert we have a few screen shots of the awesome concept art from the show by Artists Dhamindra Jeevan and Marc Taro Holmes

TV Skeptic: 'Bigfoot: The Definitive Guide'
(February 3, 2011) -- I will never forget my first encounter with Bigfoot. It was early one morning when I was in fifth grade. The school day had just started, and my desk was near the window, where I had a clear view of the adjacent forest and the rugged mountains beyond. Our teacher was handing out some reading material when I saw him. Big, hairy and scary, right there on the cover of the Weekly Reader. From that moment, Bigfoot captured my imagination. I read that little booklet from cover to cover, believing every word.

But you grow up and things change. On Tuesday, the History Channel aired "Bigfoot: The Definitive Guide," a documentary that promised to hold Bigfoot up to the standards of modern science. This is not the first time science has taken on Bigfoot, but so far, it seems, whenever the Bigfoot legend and facts have squared off, the legend has won.

This Canadian-British production brought together a panel of scientists to analyze reports of "Bigfoot" sightings from around the world. Unfortunately, the scientists start off on the wrong foot, with a rather misleading argument.

The team points to the recent discovery of the Bili Ape, a large relative of the chimpanzee that lives in the Bili forest of the Congo. They claim that if a new species as large as this has managed to live undetected for so long, other species of giant ape-like creatures might still be out there.

The problem with that claim is that it was well known that chimpanzees lived in that same forest. The discovery was not that they existed, but that they are so different -- larger and darker in color -- as to constitute a new species. (Most new species discovered by scientists, including those found by team member Anna Nekaras, fall into that same category.)

As Promised here is some of the concept art. We noticed the same picture was used to reference different creatures, we did our best to match up the drawing with the first variant they named.

BIGFOOT


ORANG PENDEK


NEANDERTHAL


HOMO FLORENSIS (the hobbit)


ALMAS (Almasty)


MANDE BURUNG


YETI


EXTERNAL LINKS
LA Times TV Skeptic
Concept Artist: Dhamindra Jeevan
Concept Artist: Marc Taro Holmes

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Our Pre-Coverage of Bigfoot: The Definitive Guide

Animal Planet Conducts Bigfoot Town Hall Style Meeting in N.C.

In an article at The Montgomery Herald, Tammy Dunn announces Animal Planet's and Mike Greene's pursuit of Bigfoot in North Carolina.

Searching for ‘Bigfoot’
By Tammy Dunn



Producers, actors and a crew from Animal Planet, yes you read right, Animal Planet, are coming to Montgomery County. Why you ask….they are coming in hopes of catching a glimpse of “Bigfoot” in the Uwharrie National Forest. Yes, you also read that right, “Bigfoot” in the Uwharrie National Forest.

It appears that the Uwharrie National Forest has become the hot spot for “Bigfoot” sightings, especially if you leave a Zagnut candy bar around. Michael Greene of Salisbury says he captured a thermal image of “Bigfoot” in the forest, using a Zagnut candy bar.

Greene says on his Web site, Bushloper.net that, he has “Been on the trail of Bigfoot for some 20 years. He has traveled from Bella Coola, BC to the Teslin River, Yukon Territory, to Bluff Creek, CA, to the Olympic Peninsula, WA, to the Adirondack Mountains of NY State, Florida’s Everglades and to the forests of North Carolina, where he now makes his home. Greene has an MS in Behavioral Psychology, is a court-qualified Questioned Documents Expert and for 20 years was Chief Investigator for a State Fraud Bureau. He is a pilot and a former EMT and member of the National Ski Patrol.” Greene also describes his encounter on the Web site detailing the filming and the use of the candy bar.

Greene says he first encountered “Bigfoot” two years ago and that just like any other species there are multiple creatures. “They multiply and there has to be thousands of them,” said Greene. But Greene realizes there are skeptics and says, “Until I saw it myself, I did not believe it. It was like a fairy tale.”

Greene is not alone in his search. West Montgomery football coach John Pate also is an avid believer and field researcher. Pate and Greene are both members of the Bigfoot Field Research Organization, which will be a part of the search.

Pate is organizing a meeting at the Troy Fire Department for anyone interested in talking to the film crew about their own personal experiences with “Bigfoot” encounters. The meeting is set for Feb. 8 from 6-9 p.m.. Pate has been an investigator for the organization for four years, but says he has been looking for “Bigfoot” as a hobby for 15 years. “Some people hit golf balls, I go to the woods. It is my sanity.” Pate says he has not been so lucky as to see “Bigfoot” but he has heard him. Pate says he has talked to people that have seen “Bigfoot” in this county though and he hopes they will come out and share their story. “The one dominant thing about “Bigfoot” is his eyes. They are orange and have a dominant shine to them,” said Pate.

Pate says the field researchers are as diverse a group as you will ever meet. Doctors, businessmen and others are all gathering material for the organization. A drive in the forest to try and flush out “Bigfoot” will be held Saturday, Feb. 12.

Chris Cagle of the Eldorado Outpost has been working with the scouting crews from Animal Planet since they first came to the area. Cagle summed it up best when he told the producers, “If there was a Bigfoot in the forest, he would already be mounted on some guys wall.”

EXTERNAL LINKS
Montgomery Herald
Michael Green's Budhloper

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MORE North Carolina Bigfoot News?
N.C. Man (Mike Greene) Lures Bigfoot with Candy
Mike Greene Gets Press in NC

Letters From the Big Man: First Look Preview

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.

EXTERNAL LINKS
New York Times: Still a Home for Directors, and Big Foot
Screen Daily's Review of the Movie

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Award Winning Director, Christopher Munch, Premiers "Letters from the Big Man" at Sundance
Bigfoot Film Premier at Sundance Film Festival: Update