Lake Effect News

By LORRAINE SWANSON

Editor

Jay Delaney, President and CEO of the Edgewater Chamber of Commerce. Delaney's first full length film, "Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie" was released on DVD by Oscilloscope Pictures earlier this month.

Nobody understands the small business owner’s quest for the American dream better than Jay Delaney, president and CEO of the Edgewater Chamber of Commerce. But life took a funny turn on Delaney’s way to Chicago last year, via a couple of unemployed steelworkers named Dallas Gilbert and Wayne Burton from Delaney’s hometown of Portsmouth, Ohio, once the shoelace capital of the world.

Gilbert and Burton are the stars of Delaney’s first feature length film, Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie, released on DVD by Ocilloscope Pictures this month. The film follows the real-life trials and triumphs of Gilbert and Burton, two amateur Bigfoot researchers in the Appalachian foothills of southern Ohio.

Delaney’s film focuses less on the existence of the mythical apelike creature Bigfoot or Sasquatch, largely disputed as a hoax by the scientific community, but more on Gilbert and Burton’s hopes of their vast library of video footage and still photographs catapulting both to fame after years as a mechanism for coping with the harsh realities of their lives.

“Portsmouth is very manufacturing heavy,” Delaney says. “In the early 1900s we had shoe manufacturers. Interestingly enough we had an NFL team, the Portsmouth Spartans, that later became the Detroit Lions. The first NFL night game was played in Portsmouth, and Roy Rogers is from there. It has faced its challenges through the years with jobs drying up.”

Delaney studied marketing at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, but took as many film classes as he could get away with. It was during his senior year in college, when a friend from home told him about a guy who came into the bank where he worked, talking about Bigfoot.

“He left a business card that said ‘Dallas Gilbert, Bigfoot Researcher,’” Delaney said. “I thought it sounded interesting. At the time, I had to do an ethnography for a class, so I got in touch with Dallas and Wayne and interviewed them at a picnic table along the Ohio River. I could tell from spending a little bit of time with them that they had interesting stories and lives.”

Dallas Gilbert and Wayne Burton, Bigfoot researchers from Portsmouth, Ohio, and the stars of "Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie."

After graduating college, Delaney and two friends began working on a documentary about the Bigfoot researchers in October 2005 and wrapped up filming in February 2006, ending up with 63 hours of video. Delaney finished editing the film in 2007. Altogether, the entire film cost under $20,000 to produce.

“I was the producer, director and editor, and I had two friends who were the crew,” Delaney said. “It was very low budget. We shot without the benefit of a film company. It is a completely independent and entrepreneurial film project and a story I wanted to tell.”

Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie has since made the rounds winning accolades and praise at juried independent film festivals around the country, including the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Tex., second only to Sundance. Earlier this year, the film was shown in Chicago at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

What makes this Bigfoot movie atypical?

“The film is really about Dallas and Wayne and their lives, and the struggles they face to pursue this dream that they have,” Delaney says. “I think money and fame are part of it, but in a lot of ways…they’re looking for just a little bit of comfort and to live comfortable decent lives. It’s that thirst and hunger in all of us for something bigger than ourselves. To some, it’s a quirky pursuit. To me, there’s something very universal in the passion and dream they have for something literally and figuratively that is larger than life.”

Delaney said he connected with both men because of their shared geography. One thing he doesn’t do in the film is make Gilbert and Burton objects of derision.

“I think it’s interesting that they pursue Bigfoot, but also because they’re from the area where I grew up,” Delaney says. “My grandpa worked at a steel mill that has since shut down. The whole area of the state has some very real economic struggles. I loved how much Dallas and Wayne devote themselves to Bigfoot research after facing serious economic challenges, when they could very easily kick back and watch TV. I loved the passion that they had.”

One of the many still photos of the mysterious apelike creature Bigfoot, documented by Dallas Gilbert and Wayne Burton in southern Ohio.

He still keeps in touch with Gilbert and Burton. Both men continue their research and have twice made the front page of the Portsmouth newspaper. “I love that they’re getting exposure and feeling like local celebrities there,” Delaney says.

Delaney is toying with an idea for his next film project, a fictional story about a country and western singer, which he plans to do on the side from his chamber work.

“I really like the power of filmmaking to connect people,” he says. “I see my role here at the Edgewater Chamber to connect business owners with each other and resources. There’s a fulfillment I get from the act of creating. I really enjoy being able to create and help influence this neighborhood in a real positive way.”

In the meantime, Delaney is keeping an open mind as to Bigfoot’s existence after his forays in the woods with Gilbert and Burton.

“We heard some very interesting sounds, but I don’t know what those were,” Delaney says.

Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie is available through Netflix, or for purchase at Border’s, Barnes and Noble, and amazon.com. Cost ranges between $20 and $30. It can also be purchased directly from Ocilloscope Pictures. View the trailer here.