A true tale of taxidermy and Big Foot will premiere at Screenland Armour in North Kansas City May 5. The film, titled “Big Fur” is a wild love story directed and produced by Kansas City native Dan Wayne. Wayne is a Jewish filmmaker who became Bar Mitzvah at Congregation Beth Shalom. He is the son of Rosemary Wayne.
The film follows legendary taxidermist Ken Walker and his obsession with Big Foot. Over the course of the film, Walker researches and creates an actual life-sized taxidermized Big Foot, which he ends up taking to the World Taxidermy Championships hosted in Springfield, Missouri.
Wayne said he always had a fascination with taxidermy. After attending the University of Kansas studying photography and then attending New York University for film, he began researching taxidermy more in-depth. He found a forum online at Taxidermy.net filled with the best taxider-
mists in the world, and that’s where he discovered Ken Walker.
“I became more interested in the characters that were doing it, and as I learned more about them, I said ‘This would make a great documentary,’ Wayne said. “I just wanted to do something about taxidermy because I think it’s a misunderstood art form.”
After learning that Walker was planning on making a life-sized recreation of Big Foot, Wayne locked in his film’s focus. He followed Walker to many different locations while shooting the film, including wooded areas where Big Foot is rumored to roam.
“He took me to the spot where it’s called (the) Big Foot habituation area, (a) very remote spot in the Canadian Rockies that has had a lot of Big Foot sightings,” Wayne said. “It’s a big, huge, vast wilderness. It’s just massive.”
Wayne said Walker is unique in the taxidermy world because he does a little bit of everything — but he’s best known for his recreations of extinct or endangered animals. He recreated the Irish elk, which has been extinct for 10,000 years. He once recreated a saber tooth tiger and even made a panda for the Smithsonian. He doesn’t just make up what he thinks the animal will look like, Wayne said. He uses references based on research and study — even for his recreation of Big Foot.
Wayne has been working on the film approximately six years. He plans to spend the next six months to a year showing it at various film festivals. He said filming was a challenge because he was a one-man crew. He did the camerawork, directing and sound work. Post-production was especially challenging and probably his least favorite part of working on the film.
“Not because I don’t enjoy it, I think I wasn’t prepared for how much work it was,” Wayne said. “It was a very big undertaking.”
Wayne has a narrative, episodic project in the works about the last sasquatch.
“I think it could be a really cool project,” Wayne said. “I didn’t really plan to make a career out of doing Big Foot stuff, but this one kind of came along and it’s a really interesting story,” Wayne said.
And as for his belief in Big Foot, Wayne said Walker was pretty convincing.
“I never really thought about Big Foot before I met Ken, but he’s pretty compelling,” Wayne said. “When you’re up there and you see how big it is (the Big Foot habitation area) it doesn’t seem as farfetched. When you hang out with him for a few days, you kind of change your mind, too.”
When he is back in Kansas City, however, Wayne says he doesn’t think about Big Foot much.
“Big Fur” will premiere at 5:30 p.m. May 5 at Screenland Armour Theatre. A Q&A session with Wayne and the star of the film, Ken Walker, will follow the showing. “Patty,” the life-sized recreation of Big Foot, will make a special appearance. Patty is available for pictures after the show. For more information, visit screenland.com/armour.