What’s that coming over the hill, is it a monster? A space creature/alien? A ghost? No, it’s Jason Kenzie on his quest for a sasquatch, increasing his filmmaking resume as he goes. How is that? Because every trip he takes, he takes his camera with him, just in case he runs into the sasquatch and has his camera at the ready. Given his findings, I’d say he’s been getting pretty close. Now if only the Sasquatch wouldn’t be so shy, but I guess it’s just the creature’s nature. I met Jason years ago, in the days when the Vancouver B Movie Factory existed, and we did a few films together. On rare occurrences there were small interactions: we bumped into each other at a Tim Hortons in North Van, he’d somehow stumble across my TikTok account, and someone else who knew him once got me to call Jason and see how he was doing. Who would’ve thought we’d reconnect years later once again when his PR person reached out and recommended I have a chat with him about his filmmaking career. Admittedly, I noticed some of his Searching for Sasquatch titles showing up here and there way before that, but I had to talk to him to know more and to reconnect.
It all started during the pandemic when he was making his Animal Adventures series, and after a trip to Cuba, he was trapped in Canada right as the pandemic hit. He had just done two documentaries, on the tiniest bats known to mankind, and the tiniest hummingbirds. But despite the small size, he found himself in a big rut as he couldn’t continue these animal adventures docs with traveling being forbidden. So he started to make plans on a documentary about Bigfoot because he thought he could go further in his animal exploration since Bigfoot had to be some kind of animal. After many interviews, he put them all together, and it expanded into a trilogy from there. Jason’s journey has taken many different places and he’s already won 50 different film awards in England, Germany, and the United States.
After a trip down memory lane, Jason took me on another journey that had me hunting for answers. Below is my report on my findings. Despite me getting lots of answers, I didn’t find Bigfoot hiding in any of them. Maybe my next supernatural interview will give me more clues…
HNMAG: So you started out photographing exotic animals and went into making short documentaries eventually. Why did you choose to get into documentary filmmaking?
Jason Kenzie: I got into documentary filmmaking because I really love hearing stories that people have to share. With animals, I realized that early on that everyone has a story about their pet. It doesn’t matter if it’s a little cat, a bug, a big dog, a 300 lb tiger, a 900 lb grizzly bear, even a 10 ft alligator. They all have interesting stories, and once I got told this interesting story about someone’s little dog, I was hooked. So I would go and I would meet people and they would hire me to photograph their animals. Then I would just basically ask questions and take a video camera with me and let them talk about their pets. I found it fascinating, especially the exotic animals. I’d ask them questions like why did they pick a 12 ft python instead of a caterpillar, and that’s basically the reason why I went into documentary filmmaking.
HNMAG: I noticed one of your first documentaries was about wild animals. How did you get so close to some of these creatures?
Jason Kenzie: A lot of the exotic animals that I was able to get close to was because people had them as pets. A lady in Saskatchewan has 5 wolves, Arctic wolves, gray wolves. She had this big white Arctic wolf and I was able to get close because she raised all these wolves from when they were young. I’d go out to meet her, we’d go for a walk, she told her my story about the wolves. There was a guy in Kelowna who had 2 10-ft alligators. He would raise them from when they were young and they were attached to him. They wanted to kill everyone else around him (laughs) but they were loving him, he would entertain them putting fish in his mouth, and I would sit there saying “Please don’t let this be the day I see the alligator take his face off!” and the animals in the wild, I would get close to them by sneaking up on them, basically. If I saw a fox maybe 150 metres away, I would crawl on my hands and knees and it would take me almost an hour just to get to a great point where I could get some shots.
HNMAG: As someone who photographed and learned about these dangerous creatures, it must’ve been risky being so close to them. What did you learn in terms of survival?
Jason Kenize: I’ve learned that one thing is you never want to turn your back on any animal. It doesn’t matter what it is in the wild. A lot of times animals will attack you from behind. So if you see a bear or cougar, you always want to back up slowly. Once you turn your back, it’s game on. Amazing why animals will attack you from behind. It’s because no animal wants to get injured, going after their prey like elk and moose and deer. The slightest cut can be lethal to a wild animal, so they always wait until the animal has its back to them, then they jump from behind for the neck. I learned that and how to build shelters and blinds out of wood and being able to hide myself in the forest. I have also learned how to make fire out of sap from trees. It makes excellent fire starter even in rain. I’ve learned how to fight off animals, like I was attacked by deer once, and I realized right then and there that might be a good way of surviving: running for your life. I don’t know how many times I’ve come into contact with a bear, I’ve seen them many times. Once I was attacked by a porcupine so THAT was interesting. It only got mad because I was too close to it.
HNMAG: Was there anything in your work that absolutely frightened you or do you consider yourself fearless?
Jason Kenzie: I’m definitely not fearless, I try to keep calm. But of course, when you see my documentaries, you’ll see that I do get scared. I don’t tell anyone that I don’t get scared when I go into a forest. As long as you stay calm, you can survive. Once you panic, you will die. There’s a lot of times when I’ve been scared in the forest, but you have to stay stoic.
HNMAG: And now you’ve gone into doing Bigfoot research. Tell me about some of the discoveries you made on your expeditions.
Jason Kenzie: Some of the stuff that I’ve actually caught on film, I caught creatures staring at me from the darkness. I walked about 20 feet from a creature that was standing about 7 feet and it dropped to the ground then went behind bushes. I’m standing there with my video camera filming this thing moving back and forth behind the tree. Some people asked me if maybe it was an owl, and I say to them, “birds don’t usually touch the ground. The only time that birds touch the ground is when they’re feeding, minus ducks, chicken and geese”. Some people say it could’ve been a deer. I don’t know exactly what it was, it was dark. My very first documentary, I was deep into forests of BC, I found a lake and in this lake there was hundreds of these huge footprints that went right through the lake. When I showed the footage to First Nations people, they said that I had found the migration path of the Sasquatch people that went from Alaska all the way down to California.
That wasn’t all, he mentioned picking up recordings of screams that didn’t sound like any animal he had ever heard before, and he seems like an animal expert.
Jason also told me how he found trees that had been ripped out of the ground, and set upside down or arranged in an X as a warning to not cross (according to Sasquatch people). Jason slept under one of the big x’s in a hammock one night and could hear something heavy approach him at 1 in the morning, and then grunt at him. He called out to his camping buddy and asked if it was him, but the guy had been asleep when it happened. Any idea as to who or what it could be? It’s things like this that honestly make me wonder if that one tree X I saw at my first scout camp was a Sasquatch’s warning.
HNMAG: You’ve traveled through a lot of mountainous and forested areas all around North America. What is the coolest place you’ve ever been to?
Jason Kenzie: The border of Texas, and Louisiana. It was by the sublime river, and that’s where we got all the screams and audio of the yelling and it was pretty cool. Texas was a really fun place to visit, also the U.P. of Michigan was another amazing location with a lot of unidentified sounds and creatures that were captured on video.
HNMAG: When looking for clues on Bigfoot, how does one go about doing so?
Jason Kenzie: A lot of courage, no fear, but fear everything. You’ll want to pick up some items like a flare, an audiotape like a recorder, some night-vision video cameras would be good, lots of flashlights and lots and lots of batteries. The last thing you want to happen is let your battery light go out in the middle of the dark. It’s happened to me a couple times and it can be terrifying. You can also contact groups, there’s a lot of Bigfoot groups out there you can join and that way they’ll take you out with them. You can meet some new friends, and you’ll experience stuff. If you want to do that, DO NOT RUN. You know how many people I’ve taken in the forest? Just one crack, could be a chipmunk, and they just run back. They’re holding my camera gear and I’m running after them.
HNMAG: It must’ve meant a lot of camping trips for you too. Did it nearly get you out of touch with civilization?
Jason Kenzie: That is one of the best parts, I do love going into the forest and into the deep deep mountains where there’s no reception. I’ll be out there for 5 days without any connection to civilization. If you do it in the summertime or spring, it’s amazing. The birds that whistle, the sound of the rivers and streams. It’s quite peaceful. I do love it, I can only go out a week at a time then come back to civilization.
HNMAG: The most interesting thing is how you managed to pump out so many documentaries in a single year. How did you manage to get so many done in such little time?
Jason Kenzie: So for 25 years, I’ve been an animal photojournalist. I was producing animal videos behind the scenes of photoshoots of my animal adventures. I have about 400 of them online, and over the years I’ve just learned how to edit fast and I kind of have an idea how to put it together. When I started doing my Bigfoot documentaries, I had that in my head on how to put it together, so I would sit down and write out what I would be looking at. If I’m going after the Dogman or Mothman, I will basically find people to interview, eye witnesses that say they’ve seen these creatures. I know that I will go and interview them, and they will give the story. Then I will write down what I need: Amazing locations to film, 3 or 4 eyewitnesses and then the adventure of going into the dark forest to go and find evidence.
By going after Bigfoot in this case, he found a lot of locations and tons of eyewitnesses so he could pump out a long-lasting trilogy. It also helps that he has joined Bigfoot groups in the States that offer to fly him in and help him find some more eyewitnesses. He also makes sure to have a good time, and now he has plenty of friends who’ll last him his lifetime.
HNMAG: When it comes to shooting, you must get a lot of footage. How difficult is it to decide what goes and what stays?
Jason Kenzie: A lot of times are what stays are the eyewitness interviews. If it’s exciting what they’re saying, and out in the field when I’m shooting. A lot of the times in the nature, about animals, a lot of the adventure. If there’s a lot of sounds out there, even if it’s visual like eye-shine, most of the animal shots will go in. Of course, if there’s a Bigfoot, THAT would go in too.
HNMAG: When we last met, you were on a team of paranormal investigators. I’ve noticed you did a couple documentaries on the subject even. Was there anything so freaky that couldn’t be shown in the final edit?
Jason Kenzie: Yes, I tripped. Didn’t want to show that. I do love putting in any of my mistakes, so when you do see my documentaries you will see there are some bloopers or there will be stuff where I slip, fall, or fumble my words. The reason why I do that is because I want people to feel as if they’re with me on my journey. I want them to know that I am real, like I don’t want it to be so scripted that people think it’s just so fake. I want people to see that I do make mistakes. As for my ghost, there wasn’t really anything so disturbing that I couldn’t put in. There was some interesting stuff that happened, I had a ladies voice answer my question of what my name was, and on the audio you hear “Jason!” and then I asked another question, “How did you die?” and all of a sudden on the audio when I played it back, it actually said “How DID I die?!” just like that. You see the reaction on my face.
HNMAG: Do you still do paranormal investigation sometimes or have you moved on from it completely?
Jason Kenzie: I actually do some paranormal stuff. If it does come around, I just finished Paranormal Adventures 3, where I went after the Public Monster at Popelick Bridge. There was a goat-like creature and it lures unexpecting adventurers onto the bridge to get hit by the train or they get pushed off by the train. We also touched on Bigfoot and went to the Haunted Story Inn and that was fun. I’m about to make a 4th one this summer in Kentucky.
HNMAG: You’re currently working on 4 more productions. How are you balancing them all out?
Jason Kenzie: It’s going to be quite interesting. I’m going to the locations, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Florida. I’m going after the Skunk-ape, which is another Bigfoot creature. I’ve started writing out what I need to have for all of the productions. I don’t want to really give away too much of certain stuff that I do to make these things happen. But the people that are hiring me have me come out, they are taking care of some of the eyewitnesses so I don’t have to focus on them, just how to set up my camera gear and make sure everything is working perfect. There’s certain stuff, lots of angles, forest shots. Until you get right to the area, where these creatures allegedly live. That’s when it gets real. When the creatures come around, it’s called the Gong-show shooting, meaning whatever happens, you have to be on your guard and when suddenly something cracks in the forest you want to start filming. You don’t want to miss out on when it comes around.
HNMAG: So each of these films are about superstitious creatures.
Jason Kenzie: Yeah. There’s going to be other creatures which I’m going to be filming in the near future, which are Mothman, The Jersey Devil, Loch-Ness Monster, possibly. I’ve been asked to film a documentary on aliens and UFO’s. I’m trying to wrap my head around how I’m going to do that. If there’s people out there that are willing to meet up with me and tell their story about their UFO experience. And I”m not talking about seeing a dot in the sky.
Jason was serious when he told me he wanted a story about someone who got picked up by an alien and then escorted into a spaceship. I’ve heard several of those stories, but I don’t know how truthful they are, given they were all from the most questionable people I’ve ever met. They were all drug addicts, honestly. It’s all about realism, Jason told me he even has a UFO chasing another UFO on camera. If anyone says it was two shooting stars having a space race, they need to reconsider that thought. He doesn’t like to brag though since it is just dots. Awards on the other hand…
HNMAG: Do the films have any distinct differences?
Jason Kenzie: They’re all going to be different features, there’s going to be some other ones I’d like to do. I’m working on another documentary about Bigfoot and it’s going to be called Hunting for Gold in the Mountains of the Bigfoot so I’m going to be doing that and I already have a lot of it filmed but there’s some stuff I need to get on camera.
HNMAG: In the title, what do you mean by Hunting for Gold?
Jason Kenzie: There is a lot of gold and prospectors out there who have seen strange creatures while out prospecting for gold in the British Columbia mountains. The documentary is going to be a few stories from prospectors and then I’m going to go out with a couple of prospectors and they’re going to take me out to where they think gold is, and into the area where these creatures are being seen. Then I’m going to leave them and spend a couple nights alone in the mountains. We’re going to take helicopters out and be dropped off into the wilderness. That’s where we’re going to go prospecting for gold.
HNMAG: What other projects will you be working on in the future?
Jason Kenzie: I’d like to go do something on the Tasmanian tiger, the legendary black panther beast of Britain. I’ve been talking to a lot of people in England. They’re looking into solving that mystery. But Australia also has the Yaoi, so I think I’ll go out there and find any evidence of the Yaoi. I definitely want to go there because that’s where the Australian version of Bigfoot is, but not as big. The flying dinosaurs of Mexico, pterodactyls and pterosaurs out there. I love mysteries.
HNMAG: Besides making these documentaries and a series, what else do you do in the film industry?
Jason Kenzie: I still photograph people’s pets, people have dogs, cats, parrots, snakes, and I still do that. I do film commercials and music videos still, I do film events so people have their events. I like what they call legacy videos, where people have done such amazing stuff throughout their life and they’ll film it all. So what they’ll do is hand me their footage and I’ll edit it altogether with music, special effects, and great sound design. Then I’ll make what is called a cinematic legacy video. Some people that have 20 years of footage and want to put it into a 2-hour legacy video. I do that.
HNMAG: How long does one of those usually take to get finished?
Jason Kenzie: It will actually take about 4 months to edit, especially if I’m doing other projects too. Usually in the winter time, it’s a little bit slower. This winter it’s going to be very busy because I will have a lot of documentaries to film.
HNMAG: Is there anything else super big that you really want to do? Besides find Bigfoot?
Jason Kenzie: There’s one thing I would love to do, before I die. I would love to hike down all the way to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and swim in Habasuca Falls. It’s so beautiful, and the First Nations people look after it. It’d be a dream to go all the way down there, and no filming any creatures, just me. The creature in the Blue Lagoon.
HNMAG: That definitely would make for an interesting little film.
Jason Kenzie: Yeah, a short film would be something, and one day I would like to do a legacy video on myself. A documentary on the life of Jason Kenzie from Extreme Animal Photojournalist to Bigfoot Researcher!
Jason has also published a small series of kids books, called “The Adventures of Lil’ Jay Jay” and he recently published a comic book called Searching for Sasquatch and the hidden treasure of bigfoot valley. You can find them on Amazon, Walmart, Barnes and Noble, just look around even. His documentaries can be found on Tubi, Plex, Amazon Video, 20 different streaming platforms.
There’s plenty of info all about Bigfoot and Jason in his documentaries. You can view them at these sites here: