Do Bigfoot, ghosts and more haunt Gilmer County, or do they just haunt our imaginations?
Sozo Bear Films co-directors Brad Kennedy and Luke Pilgrim seek to explore this question and others in their newly-released paranormal documentary, “Unknown Ellijay.”
“It’s basically exploring the paranormal in Ellijay. We’re telling people’s stories that have experienced or seen strange, unexplainable things,” Pilgrim said.
During filming last spring, the filmmakers interviewed a number of Ellijay residents on their various paranormal experiences.
These people included Expedition Bigfoot owner David Bakara, Bigfoot witness Justin McCullough and others.
Bakara owns one of America’s most successful Bigfoot museums, with hundreds of exhibits.
While Kennedy was skeptical, Pilgrim said he arrived in Ellijay already a “true believer.”
“We’ve all grown,” Pilgrim said. “But our goal has been just to tell really compelling stories.”
Kennedy and Pilgrim will release their documentary in three parts on the Sozo Bear Films YouTube channel. They released the first episode July 14.
The pair still disagree about the reality of some of the stories they’ve heard. But they both say the people they interviewed experienced inexplicable things.
“These people aren’t just coming up with these crazy stories on their own,” Kennedy said.
The documentary will also focus on alleged ghost encounters.
In one account, a person emailed the filmmakers that a friend told them a ghost haunted River Street Tavern.
Another shared a story of pots and pans flying off the wall.
Employees at River Street Tavern disagreed on the subject.
Host Ashley Trujillo, bartender Kayla Kennedy and Kayla Wofford told the Times-Courier they had never seen a ghost.
But Kayla Kennedy said she saw a shot glass suddenly fly out of its place and smash to pieces.
And Wofford said she sometimes gets a “weird feeling” when cleaning the restaurant’s second floor.
“There’s been all kids of funky things,” Kayla Kennedy said.
For the filmmakers, their own discoveries during the documentary haven’t much changed their worldview.
The main attraction of Bigfoot and ghost stories seems to be whether they are true rather than their philosophical implications.
“I don’t think I ever had an existential crisis with this, but, I mean, there definitely were ways maybe you might, for me, might have gone,” Brad Kennedy said.
Both the directors said they hoped their documentary would spur people to visit Gilmer and draw their own conclusions.
“There’s mystery and history in every aspect of communities, and our goal was just letting people share that and to celebrate what makes Gilmer County and Ellijay unique,” Kennedy said.