Kiva Lecture Hall was transformed from a standard classroom into a place where monsters dwell Tuesday night as documentary filmmaker Peter von Puttkamer presented his film "Monster Hunters."
Von Puttkamer has traveled around the world, making documentaries and short movie series for The Learning Channel, including "Spiders" and "Sasquatch Odyssey," the film that has been called the definitive Bigfoot video.
Von Puttkamer's lecture was sponsored by the Associated Students of UNM'S Student Special Events, said Mike Greer, SSE speakers director.
Tuesday's presentation is part of what is going to be an annual Halloween theme, Greer said.
Von Puttkamer is a native of Vancouver, British Columbia, and got his start hunting monsters through his affiliation with American Indian groups in Canada, he said. He also was influenced by differences between the facts and fiction about monster myths in his homeland.
The filmmaker talked about his monster-hunting experiences and played his latest movie, "Monster Hunters," filmed over a two-year period in six different countries.
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Von Puttkamer said he is not out to make "shock videos," but rather to "get out there with these guys and really see if there's something to their stories."
He interviews locals and leads monster hunts while filming his documentaries.
Two of the monsters examined in von Puttkamer's latest film include the Puerto Rican chupacabra and the Cadborosaurus, a giant British Colombian sea serpent.
The chupacabra became popular in the media 10 or 15 years ago, but the myth itself is more than 200 years old.
"Puerto Rico is a perfect recipe for a monster," von Puttkamer said.
Some locals think the chupacabra is a monster, while others believe it is a hoax.
The chupacabra, which translates to "goat sucker," attacks animals while spilling no blood. This method is what inspires both doubt and confirmation of the monster's existence.
"You can't deny physical evidence," von Puttkamer said.
Unlike the chupacabra, scientists have actually seen, although not completely confirmed, the Cadborosaurus' existence. Its history dates back hundreds of years and is said to be 30 to 70 feet long, von Puttkamer said.
It is "the best damn sea serpent in the world . . . better than Loch Ness," von Puttkamer said.
The Kiva Lecture Hall was nearly filled to capacity for the lecture.
"He was interesting, and the fact that he was so thorough in his research and enthusiastic in his presentation made me start thinking," said Katherine Johnson, a sophomore business major. But, she said, the presentation stopped short of convincing her that monsters exist.
Many in the audience would agree that Von Puttkamer is enthusiastic about his work, though he said he is also realistic about chasing monsters.
"The bane of the monster hunter is the lack of physical evidence . . . that's what science demands," he said.
Despite the challenge, the filmmaker said his work will go on in his next project.
"The Mongolian Death Worm, probably. That ought to be interesting," he said. "The hunt goes on."
