The only Swedish Bigfoot footage?

Greetings blogizens!

After my long winter hiatus during which I have done nothing of value whatsoever (which was lovely by the way), I’m now back in the cryptic world of cryptids and the like.
I have been catching up on my Phantoms and Monsters newsletters (love, love, LOVE!) and I have already found a few things I’m going to have to write about here.
That will however have to wait in favor of what landed in my lap yesterday…

I have come in contact with a man from the north of Sweden and we have been communicating for some time. He is of the Sami people (our natives) and I’m very fascinated by their ancient culture. Yesterday I found in my inbox something he had come across while going through files of his old research. It’s an article that appeared in a Swedish local newspaper in 1970 about a man who witnessed a Bigfoot-type creature crossing the road.
Now this isn’t as unusual as some of you might think. Bigfoot-type creatures seem to pop up every now and then, mostly in the north. I wouldn’t say stories about these creatures are abound but they exist and I have a few on file I might share in the future.

Where the sighting took place

What’s unique about this particular sighting though is the fact that the witness was carrying a camera and managed to shoot about 30 seconds of film while the creature, half-hidden behind shrubs and trees (of course, it’s a Bigfoot. What did you think? Full on frontal, dancing the merengue?), is shaking a tree, or something like that.
It’s filmed in Super 8 and the quality isn’t the greatest, but beginning at about 7 seconds in you can clearly make out the tree shaking mid-screen.
Together with this video came another one that appears to have been shot by the same camera and around the same time. It seems to show footprints at a lake shore. At least I believe I see one near the end.

Another thing that makes this case sort of interesting is the other local newspaper article I have in my files that in itself might not be much, but in light of this sighting might actually be something. It’s about strange footprints found in the snow in 2009, in the same area as the filmed sighting in 1970.
I opted not to write about the tracks before since I figured they COULD have been made by a four-legged animal jumping (for whatever reason quadrupeds jump around with their legs tightly together… A deer ballerina?) and it’s hard to make any real assessments with just the one photo.
No, I’m not translating that article for you (learn Swedish, all the cool kids do it!). It doesn’t really say much other than that these tracks are a mystery to the locals and that they measure approximately 55 cm (22 inches) by 40 cm (16 inches) with a depth of 2- 3 dm (8- 12 inches). It doesn’t say how deep the snow is though so it’s hard to judge how heavy whatever made the prints was.

Back to the 1970 sighting now. This is the article that appeared in Norrbottens Dagblad, October 12, 1970:

Abominable snowman sighted near Kelvajärvi

Malmberget

Leif Petersson was on his way to Gällivare. Then he saw something very peculiar by Kelvajärvi.
“I didn’t dare get out of the car since I didn’t have my rifle with me but I had the presence of mind to film it.”

It was yesterday afternoon when Leif was travelling in his car on road 45 toward Gällivare that he claims to have made the macabre observation. Opportunistically enough he happened to have his camera in the back seat.
“I’m interested in animals and nature and in later years I’ve also begun to shoot animals with my camera”, says Leif.
About 5 km before Gällivare, near Kelvajärvi, Leif says he saw a large, hairy creature, about 100 meters in front of the car. It crossed the road with a lumbering gait. What he’s speculating about now is that it might have been an abominable snowman.
Critical voices say that it must have been a bear, and insinuate that Leif might not have been entirely sober at the time of the observation.
“ I am very familiar with animals and nature, so I’m not mistaken. I have personally shot 13 bears. And I haven’t had liquor since 1964. This was no ordinary animal. I didn’t dare get out of the car since I didn’t have my rifle with me but I had the presence of mind to film it”, Leif continues.
Now everyone is excitedly awaiting the super 8 mm film that has been sent to Stockholm to be developed.
“It should be enough to silence all critics”, Leif concludes.

Well…

This is the film he shot. I’ve only stabilized it using youtube’s editing tools, nothing else.

The other film at the lakeside:

So, I’m just putting it out there. Not saying it’s Bigfoot, but you know what they say- it’s probably Bigfoot.