Haunted Documentaries (Volume I)

To be haunted is not always something I associate with something that's negative. I didn't set out on these trips in hopes that I would see or provoke some spooky ghosts in disrespectful ways, but to honor their history through a genuine sense of curiosity and to say hello. Sometimes they'd respond, sometimes they wouldn't, but the only thing I set out to hunt for was their stories. I find it haunting and beautiful that in some of these places I visited, folks have been telling these ghost stories for years. We've been telling ghost stories over a campfire, on stages, in films, through books, and even by flashlight, for thousands of years. We connect through our own mortality through exploring what possibly lives beyond us in ghost stories.

Some stories are horrifying, some ghosts are scary, but from what I first learned when I went to Shaniko to shoot the first documentary for this series, not all ghosts are lost. Heaven is a hotel, a theater, a mansion, a theme park, a lighthouse, it's the home you find yourself haunted by and finding your way back to.

I think I was always meant to live in Oregon again, I feel haunted by this place as it makes me want to lean more fully into my fears so that I may lean more deeply into my own life that I can look back fondly on when I'm a ghost haunting the last Blockbuster in Bend (that's the dream). Exploring these places has taught me so many lessons, and if you take anything away from these documentaries, I pray it summons your curiosities so that you too walk into the things that scare you in order to create a story worth telling. May you find wonderful stories, people, and places along the way. I look forward to the many more stories, people, and places to come, both happy and haunting.

Happy Hauntings,
John Alan Hulbert