Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie is a strange, oddly moving flick. It tracks Dallas Gilbert and Wayne Burton as they “research” the legendary and elusive bigfoot in Portsmouth, Ohio, a town that clearly has seen better days.
The emphysematic Gilbert and the burly Burton try to lure bigfoot out of the woods and onto film, spending almost all their time on the effort. Jay Delaney's movie, a decidedly independent, $11,000 production, debuted at South by Southwest in 2008, screened at the 2009 Cleveland International Film Festival, and will screen again at the Weapons of Mass Creation Fest, May 22 and 23.
It's a keeper. Not a runaway success and very much a cult flick, it's got legs.
“Ever since I was a teen-ager, I always loved movies,” says Delaney by phone from Chicago, where he's president and chief executive officer of the Edgewater Chamber of Commerce. “I loved Pee-wee's Big Adventure when I was a kid – it still is one of my favorite films –and I also remember the first Batman film with Michael Keaton.
"My family and I regularly went to see movies [while I was] growing up in southern Ohio. There weren't a whole lot of entertainment options.”
Delaney grew up in Lucasville and graduated from Wright State University in Dayton in 2001 with a marketing degree. That major allowed him to take only one film class.
However, during his senior year, Delaney took a course in the films of the radical documentarian Frederick Wiseman, a specialist in social institutions whose notable films include The Cool World and the controversial Titicut Follies. The teacher was Robert Scherer, then associate dean of the Wright State business school. (Scherer is now dean of the business school at Cleveland State University.)
Delaney wrote his thesis on marketing independent films, and in 2001, made American Dream, a low-budget, low-fi short about Gilbert and Burton that years later evolved into Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie.
“What intrigued me is that these two guys, who are the subjects of the film, are from Portsmouth, just outside of Lucasville,” says Delaney. “I loved the idea that they have this passion for bigfoot and for proving to the world that bigfoot exists.
"Coming from that area and knowing the challenges they face, and the passion they have within them, after initially making a short film about them, I thought it would be curious to figure out why they're doing their research… What drew me to the film was this dream, that they have, a different take on the American dream.”
The original, black-and-white short is explicit about that dream: Gilbert says he hopes his bigfoot work will finally afford him and his wife that vacation they've never taken. In the feature-length color film, the picture is murkier.
Gilbert and Burton say they want to put bigfoot on the map, so to speak, but Gilbert seems far more sick, Burton far more depressed. Burton, in particular, comes off like the loser he says he is. It is a sadder, stranger and wiser movie, but it's also far less hopeful.
As for Delaney, he's dedicated to balancing the creative and the commercial. He spends his time in Chicago's northside Edgewater neighborhood marketing and promoting the area's many small businesses, creating networking events, staging educational workshops, and advocating for local businesses that have a beef with the City of Chicago.
“At my core, I think of myself as an entrepreneur, and that's really the common thread between my film making and my work at the chamber of commerce. My passion is in creating and in connecting people.
"With my filmmaking, my hope is that people will connect with Dallas and Wayne through that film; for me, in my chamber of commerce work, what I enjoy most is helping the small businesses here in the neighborhood.”
He also touts Ohio. Delaney noted that Shane Davis, the cinematographer on Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie, is from Ohio; so is the executive producer and sound mixer, Jeff Montavon. Ohioans Justin Riley and Ben Colburn wrote the music, played by all-Ohio musicians, including songwriter Crowe Montgomery.
Delaney is working on another film, “about a guy who gets laid off from a corporate job and sets off on a road trip to find meaning in his life.” He envisions it as a cross between Pee-wee's Big Adventure and Into the Wild.
Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie will screen on Sunday, May 23 at the Weapons of Mass Creation festival at Parish Hall & Church, 6205 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland 44102. Jay Delaney will be there for a Q&A. His girlfriend is coming to Cleveland: she's a filmmaker, too. Check out www.wmcfest.com for more information.
