Capturing Bigfoot: The Truth About Patterson-Gimlin

If you spent a lot of time watching In Search of in the 70’s or History and Discovery Channels over the last two decades, you probably saw a lot of the so-called Patterson-Gimlin Film, famous for supposedly documenting the existence of a sasquatch (Bigfoot). Experts estimate it might be the second most widely watched amateur film, after the Zapruder Film. It has been debated for decades, but recently discovered evidence calls its veracity into question. Filmmaker Marq Evans chronicles the history of the film and explains why many Bigfoot “community” members now reluctantly agree it was probably a hoax in the documentary Capturing Bigfoot, which is currently screening in New York.

Roger Patterson was a legit cowboy from Yakima, who became preoccupied with Bigfoot lore. Even before he shot the familiar footage of the lady sasquatch striding through the forest, coyly looking over her shoulder into the camera, he was recording interviews with supposed witnesses. His young son Clint (now also a cowboy) was there for a lot of his Bigfoot chasing—not out of cryptozoological interest, but just to spend time with his father. However, he was not there when Patterson and his friend Bob Gimlin made the film that bears their names.

Even in the limited media ecosystem of the late 1960s, the Patterson-Gimlin Film became a sensation. Eventually, with the backing of his brother-in-law, Al DeAtley, Patterson incorporated the film into a longer documentary that they successfully four-walled in the early 1970s. However, Gimlin was somehow cut out of his rightful share of the film’s revenues, which led to hard feelings.

In fact, the film alleges DeAtley cut out just about everyone else, largely including Patterson, who tragically succumbed to cancer in 1972. Indeed, DeAtley clearly emerges as the villain of Evans’ film. Nevertheless, as his social position rose. DeAtley chose to distance himself from his Bigfoot associations, so he allowed the rights to the Patterson-Gimlin film revert to Roger Patterson’s widow, who made good money licensing the footage.

Ironically, Capturing Bigfoot is not really about cryptid chasing. Instead, it presents the Patterson-Gimlin Film as almost a “cursed” object, like the Hope Diamond or the Maltese Falcon, which poisoned friendships and fractured families. Furthermore, some of Evans’ on-camera experts outright suggest the hoax damaged other lives, by fueling some prominent Bigfoot hunters’ obsession with the cryptid.

Frankly, Capturing Bigfoot is both surprisingly sad and surprisingly powerful. Redemption arises as the film’s primary theme, as Clint Patterson works to mend fences and establish the truth. Nevertheless, his film will irrevocably alter the Bigfoot “sphere.” It is particularly sad to watch the late Dr. Jeff Meldrum, who was considered the most academically grounded Sasquatch expert watch the game-changing footage revealed in this film. Technically, it is true when he and others argue it does not disprove the existence of the Sasquatch, but their case just isn’t the same without Patterson-Gimlin.

Regardless, throughout it all, the junior Patterson truly anchors the film with his genuineness and his humanity. Recommended for skeptics rather than blind true believers, Capturing Bigfoot is now available on VOD and it screens this weekend at the Lower Manhattan Drafthouse.