Chasing Footprints

The Footprints Crew (from left to right): Romy Santana ’06, Kirmaya Cevallos '07, Luis Vale ’06, Maria Delgado ’06, Lino La Rosa '07, Juan Carlos Gonzalez ’06, Kallie Burke '07 and Claudia Echeverria ’06. (Photo: The Miami Herald; courtesy of Juan Carlos Gonzalez.)

A documentary film by a group of FIU alumni and students on the elusive Everglades dweller the “Skunk Ape” won the Best International Student Film Award after playing on opening night of the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival in March.

Not a bad debut for an $800 film paid for by the students.

Claudia Echeverria ’06, Juan Carlos Gonzalez ’06, Lino La Rosa, Maria Delgado ’06, Romy Santana ’06, Luis Vale ’06, Kallie Burke and Kirmaya Cevallos wrote, directed and produced the film last fall. Burke, Cevallos and La Rosa will graduate at the end of the Spring Semester.

In making the film, the crew went seeking answers to the mystery of the 7-8-foot tall hirsute creature that may or may not dwell in the Everglades. They documented their findings on a 15-minute documentary film called Footprints as the final project of their advanced videography class.

“I expected the group to create a broadcast quality video production,” associate professor Bert Delgado said. “The documentary is quite good and even better is the fact that people are talking about it and recognizing its merits. One of the goals of the class is to promote our students’ – and FIU – in the industry. Footprints is a great way to do this.”

The film also has earned the students high marks in the classroom.

“We got an A on the project and everyone in class liked it,” Echeverria said. “Next thing we knew NPR, The Miami Herald and The Beacon had picked up the story and a producer from Good Morning America called asking to talk to us.”

The documentary presents an informative account about the elusive and legendary creature. There are die-hard believers and there are skeptics; the film presents both sides via video footage captured by those who have encountered the Skunk Ape, testimonies from scientific researchers and so-called experts and interviews with the people from Everglades City who know the legend all-too well.

Burke, a television production major, is not sure under which category she falls.

“I change my mind every day,” she said. “While I was doing research I’d find out something and I’d get excited and I’d be sure it had to exist. But then I’d hear someone tell a story about how it’s just a man in costume, so I’d kind of get bummed out.”

One the other hand, David Shealy, a Skunk Ape researcher and lifetime resident of the Everglades, is convinced the creature exists. After all, he argues in the film, failure to accept that there is something on this planet we don’t know about is pure ignorance.

For more information about this film, visit www.footprintscrew.com.

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