Thom Powell Has Some Questions, And Answers, About the Freeman Footage
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on December 31st, 2011
Even among sasquatch researchers, most do not realize just how enigmatic the above footage, shot by ultimate field man Paul Freeman, truly is. There are several mysteries that surround this genuine video footage of a sasquatch, taken in 1984. The first mystery is just who owns the legal rights to the footage.
With the death of Freeman in 2003, it is assumed that rights to the Freeman footage reverted to his widow, Nancy. But all my attempts to locate her and verify this have proven futile. Paul lived in the eastern Washington town of Walla Walla, prior to his death. he also kept a cabin on the Washington coast around Long Beach. None of the Freemans I contacted in those towns claim any connection to Paul or even knew of him. Meanwhile, two separate individuals, one representing a TV show, have approached me in hopes of finding Nancy Freeman, or whoever else currently holds rights to this famed footage. And so I issue this appeal to hear from anyone who might know who currently hods the rights to the Freeman footage.
This question of ownership is a far easier one to answer than the questions and mysteries that are inherent in the video clip itself. Authenticity of the clip is one big question in the minds of some, but not for me. Just prior to his death, Paul and Nancy Freeman came to my house in Oregon to do an interview for a British TV production. An informed and competent interviewer quizzed Paul on numerous aspect of his field work in general and the video in particular. As his wife sat facing him only ten feet distant, Paul insisted that the footage was authentic. That’s good enough for me. I don’t think there are too many souls who, staring their own mortality in the face, not to mention their life-long spouse, would sit there and tell lies. But beyond circumstantial evidence and personal assurances, the video itself, especially when the whole raw footage is viewed, bespeaks an authenticity that is not as evident when the much the shorter clip taht is usually found on internet sources is viewed.
Prior to filming the subject of interest, the footage made on Paul’s camcorder shows a trackway that Paul found near Deduck Springs. On t he video, he competently documents the trackway which he credits to a juvenile sasquatch. Then he makes multiple plaster casts, measurements, and of course, video documentation. What most may not realize is that Freeman had been schooled by Dr. Grover Krantz in how to cast and measure trackways.
Freeman’s detailed knowledge of the remote Blue Mountains and his keen sense of animal tracking was valued by Dr. Krantz, who saw Freeman as the most experienced and competent field man in the area surrounding Pullman, Washington, where Krantz was a professor at Washington State. Freeman was so prolific at uncovering bigfoot evidence that some, like Dahinden and Byrne, doubted his honesty, and they said so on multiple occasions. It is my considered opinion that their statements stemmed from a combination of ego and narrow range of experience that prevented these high-profile researchers from accepting the fact that Freeman was far more capable and successful at gathering the much sought evidence than they would ever be.
Yet for all his savvy as a field man, Freeman lived an austere life in which money was always tight. While some suppose that money was the root motivation for fakery, I would point out that on such limited means, Freeman could not have pulled off the costuming ruse on his video that is alleged by some. And, the raw footage clearly shows the work of a diligent and well-trained field man. What is not seen on the video footage is a short clip between the casting of a trackway and the creature segment. Between these to segments was a short clip of a child’s birthday party at a restaurant. I removed the segment out of privacy concerns but its existence on the original camcorder tape illustrates to my satisfaction that Freeman was using his one and only camcorder for anything and everything of intereste in his life that was worth documenting on video tape. While the sasquatch research was the reason for the camcorder;’s existence, Freeman was just a regular guy with a regular life including relatives’ birthday party in between trips to the Blue Mountains in search of sasquatch evidence.
But there is yet another, more compelling reason why I am absolutely certain that Freeman didn’t fake anything: He could not have possibly done so. I direct the viewer’s attention to the time stamp on the video as seen on the YouTube-posted segment. At time 4:08, just as Freeman utters, “Oh, there he goes!” the subject steps behind what looks to be a grand fir tree trunk that is between 12 and 18 inches in diameter. And remarkably, an instant later, the creature steps out from behind another, still smaller tree, that looks to be about a foot distant of the first tree. Yet, the subject is never seen to cross what appears to be an open gap between the two trees! The quality of the video and the distance to the subject makes it difficult to be absolutely certain of the gap between the two trees but, to the best of my ability to discriminate, it does appear that there is a gap between the two trees. To the extent that folks like to post replies to these blog posts, I invite them to offer their own opinions of this question in the comments box at the bottom of this post.
Read the Thom’s entire thoughts about the Freeman Footage, including what he thinks are some paranormal aspects of the video at his ThomSquatch blog.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
This truly looks authentic. And the man’s reactions, especially compared to all the fake stuff we have been subjected to, sound real. I could not detect a false note. So far this and Patterson/Gimlin seem to be the best we’ve got.
On his blog, Thom comments that “The flick of the head is so rapid … that very same move defies everything that is assumed to be true about the sasquatch creatures based on study of the Patterson-Gimlin footage”.
Assuming that both the Freeman footage and the Patterson film are authentic, they would represent the clearest view of two different individuals from an entire species.
If you only had two film clips of two different individual humans, how likely is it that you would see the same movement in those two individuals?
If you used footage of myself as the basis for how humans move, and compared it to, say, an Olympic track-and-field star, you may well conclude that the athlete’s movements “defy everything known about human movement”!
What about freeman’s other footage where a bigfoot runs across a mountain road in front of him as he is driving and Freeman says word for word what he says in this footage shot at deduct springs? Your going to have a hard time finding that footage as only a short clip of it made the news on show inside edition i believe. When freeman showed that footage to Vance Orchard and others they told him it looked fake. The fake looking part is where freeman jumps out of the truck and follows the bigfoot into the watershed. That section of film cut out and just the part of the bigfoot running across the road remained. Not too long afterwards he shoots the deduct footage again saying word for word the same phrase when the bigfoot appears on tape.
I myself can detect some movement as it goes between the two trees mentioned. Perhaps the foliage in the way of the camera was thicker than it appears in the video, and/or it was more in shadow?
The same questions and answers that apply to the PG film also apply to the Freeman video. Unfortunately, Freeman’s is shorter and more difficult to analyze. Even though it was shot with more modern equipment, that aspect is actually a handicap as you cannot freeze frame and blow up the film clip by clip like the PG film. As such, unless an alleged accomplice comes forward (similar to what occurred in the PG film) who claims they were wearing a suit, than this video cannot really be disproven as legitimate. The closest thing to this I have ever read (forgot where) was that Freeman’s son may have been his accomplice and wore a suit.
also what you don’t see on this video is what happened next…
apparently the creatures did not want him there and began harassing him and screaming/growling at him… he was so frightened that he curled up in a fetal position and prayed to god that if god would let him get out of there alive he would promise to never bother them again…
the video where he comments on this is much harder to find unfortunately…
I don’t think that “open gap” is an open gap – if you look closely, you can see movement behind the leaves as the creature crosses. I think concealed by foliage is a more likely explanation than teleporting or whatever else is being proposed here.
Interesting observation. I’ve studied the footage several times now and to me, it looks like the tree is actually quite a bit wider than it appears, as half the tree is brightly lit, and the other half is in dark shadow. Then the rest of the “gap” is covered by foliage. If you look closely, you can see some of the creature through it, although its interesting because you expect to see more of it than you actually do. Just an optical illusion I think. Whenever the paranormal aspect of bigfoot is mentioned, it makes me cringe a little. Whether it’s authentic or not, could go either way, but Freeman is too controversial for me to completely accept it.
To me it looks there is an optical illusion of a clear space between those trees when in reality there was some sort of screening from brush. If you look closely you can see movement between the trees looking much like what you’d see from walking behind thick brush.
If you look at frames 5:08-5:34, where he says, “oh my god there’s two of them!..I wonder where they went..”. It looks like there is one steps behind one of the white trees to the left of the screen, the smaller tree. As you watch that during those frames, I can see a dark shadow popping out the left and then to the right of the tree. I could be an anomaly of the camera quality and shadow contrasts, but it if you reference back to 5:06 something is definitely moving towards that tree and looks to step behind it. If there was one hiding behind that tree, he practically walks right past it without noticing. Interesting footage. Feels genuine with listening to the narration along with the footage.