Caleb Moore is a banker, not a filmmaker, by trade.
The Virginia resident still knows a good movie when he sees one. And, lately, he hasn’t seen enough.
“I had one of those moments,” Caleb tells HiT about his recent career pivot. “I thought back to the films I saw growing up, and I wasn’t seeing something of the quality I was used to.”
He wanted to help bring talented people together to give the world better films, in his own modest way. So when he saw Ward Hiney’s “Dark Holler,” a five-part docuseries about a family’s struggle with a spiritual entity on Loor TV, he took the leap.
He connected to both Hiney and Tony Merkel, the founder of “The Confessionals” podcast. The latter envisioned a film division of his growing media empire.
That led Moore to Joseph Granda, an actor-turned-filmmaker who helped Merkel with several documentary projects, like “The Shape of Shadows” (2023).
That partnership gave way to Granda’s second feature film, “The Sasqualogist.” The film is available exclusively starting April 28 at MerkelFilms.com.
Granda stars as a crusty Bigfoot guru struggling with the people in his life, including a floundering romance and ties to a local teen (Brandon Swartz). The dramedy finds the main character leading a Bigfoot expedition and facing his own demons.
It’s an atypical take on Bigfoot cinema, a film subset known for B-movie exploitation. Think “Shadows of Bigfoot,” “Stranded” and “Throwback.”
“The Sasqualogist” offers a thoughtful meditation on what drives broken souls, delivering on several fronts despite a tiny budget.
Moore had another reason for becoming a part-time movie producer.
“How much can you complain about a medium and not do anything about it?” Moore asks. Plus, his skill set suggested he might have a role to play in this arena.
“In my career, I’ve been putting together excellent teams in other realms,” he says, asking himself why he couldn’t do the same for filmmakers.
Donning a producer’s hat has taught him a few lessons about the industry.
“It’s much harder than you think,” he says bluntly of the learning curve in play, but he also sees the upside. “If you learn more, the universe is that much larger.”
He’s glad that “The Sasqualogist” isn’t your typical Bigfoot adventure.
“[Granda’s character] wants to find Bigfoot. That’s true on the surface, but you think you know what you’re looking for … and then he realizes what he wanted the whole time.”
The project gave Moore another crash course, but this time in Bigfoot 101.
“I became fascinated by it. I didn’t realize how deep the world was,” says Moore, who attended Sasquatch festivals during the post-production and marketing of the film.
“There are true hardline groups that are of the opinion what this creature may or may not be,” he says, adding his views on the mythical creature were far simpler prior to “The Sasqualogist.”
“There are so many layers and reasons why some individuals think there’s a ‘woo’ involved,” he says, speaking of the creature’s supposed paranormal bent.
FAST FACT: “The Sasqualogist” won Best Film at 2025’s Winter Park Film Festival in Colorado.
Moore’s Walking Idiot Productions is just getting started, but he hopes audiences see the company’s mission as something necessary in today’s film world. Now, it’s time to spread that goal far and wide.
“We’re trying to get people to see and hear the quality of what we’re putting out,” Moore says. And the newbie producer’s faith is part of the process.
“Some people have a God-given talent, and you realize there are individuals [like Granda] who should be seen,” he says. “I was very fortunate he was in a place where he was at that time to make this film.”
