Newly discovered footage featured in the upcoming documentary Capturing Bigfoot raises questions about the authenticity of the legendary 1967 Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film.
The Patterson-Gimlin film, perhaps the most famous Bigfoot sighting ever, was shot in Northern California on October 20, 1967 and has likely been examined more than any other Bigfoot video. Over the past six decades, many have tried to refute it, but no one has been able to completely disprove its authenticity.
A new documentary claims to prove once and for all that the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film was a hoax
Two men, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin, captured the legendary footage near Bluff Creek in Del Norte County on the Six Rivers National Forest. For fifty years, Gimlin maintained that the film was legit.
“I can understand why they don’t believe in it — because I didn’t believe it either,” Gimlin told Outside in 2016. “But I saw one. And I know what I saw. And I know it wasn’t a man in a suit. It couldn’t have been!”
Now, however, in an upcoming documentary titled Capturing Bigfoot, Patterson’s son, as well as witnesses, claim they will pull back the curtain on the legendary footage.
Capturing Bigfoot will be released on Amazon Prime Video and in select theaters on October 20 (National Bigfoot Day). In the documentary, a 16-millimeter film reel that was found inside a safe may bring something fresh to the long-running debate.
What is in the new footage?
The newly found 40-second-long footage was purportedly shot in 1966 and appears to show a scene very similar to the Patterson-Gimlin film. The filmmakers believe it was sort of a “test run” for the now-infamous film.
Similar to the Patterson-Gimlin film, the footage shows Bigfoot strolling through the forest and looking over its right shoulder. However, this new footage shows the creature in a more leafy forest, moving slowly into the woods.
“This is like the Holy Grail or something. This is going to change everything about my dad’s film,” Roger Patterson’s son Clint says in the documentary.
Teresa Brooks, the daughter of Norm Johnson, a man who worked in Boeing’s video department in the 1960s, found the new footage in 2017. The film eventually made its way to filmmaker Marq Evans, a lecturer at Olympic College in Washington State, and the man behind Capturing Bigfoot.
According to the Kitsap Sun, Norm Johnson joined Roger Patterson’s hoax but never spoke out publicly because his wife pressured him to stay quiet. It wasn’t until after Teresa Brooks’ mother passed away in 2017 that she acquired the film reel.
“My dad was a fun guy, I can see him being part of this,” Brooks said during an interview, adding, “I don’t know why he kept it such a secret.”