If you’ve spent any amount of time arguing about whether Bigfoot is real, you probably know the name Roger Patterson. And you probably have strong opinions on whether or not his iconic film showing the mythical man ape is real or not.
The legendary Sasquatch hunter spent years chasing evidence of the creature, eventually capturing roughly 59 seconds of footage in Northern California on October 20, 1967. That grainy stretch of celluloid became the Patterson-Gimlin Film, one of the most famous and debated pieces of “evidence” in cryptozoology history. Now, a new documentary is going back to where the whole obsession began with Capturing Bigfoot.
The full trailer for the documentary has arrived, and while it promises plenty of Bigfoot history, this isn’t simply a trip down memory lane.
Directed by Marq Evans, Capturing Bigfoot follows Patterson’s pursuit of the elusive cryptid while digging into the people and personal history surrounding the famous recording. Patterson’s son Clint is among those featured in the doc, along with Bob Gimlin, who was with Patterson when the original reel was captured.
Then there’s that mysterious spool of 16mm film.
More than five decades after the Patterson-Gimlin footage was shot, another reel was discovered inside a safe. The filmmakers tease the discovery as something that could change the story surrounding one of the most famous pieces of Bigfoot evidence ever recorded.
Exactly what that means is being kept under wraps, and that’s probably for the best. The trailer makes it pretty clear that Capturing Bigfoot wants audiences to discover the revelation alongside the people who spent decades living with the story.
The documentary also goes beyond the stink ape itself. According to the filmmakers, this is a story about the legacy of Roger Patterson and the relationships that were affected by his pursuit of Bigfoot. That includes longtime disagreements over the authenticity of the Cine-Kodak K-100 stock and the people who have spent decades trying to make sense of what happened in those Northern California woods.
The Patterson-Gimlin Film has been analyzed, dissected and debated for nearly 60 years, with some people convinced it shows an actual Sasquatch and others convinced the whole thing was an elaborate hoax. Whatever you believe, the footage became the defining image of Bigfoot and helped turn Patterson’s 1967 expedition into a piece of modern folklore.
Capturing Bigfoot premiered at SXSW earlier this year, where it reportedly played to a sold-out crowd. The documentary was then kept largely out of the festival circuit as the filmmakers protected the new material and the mystery surrounding its central discovery.
Now everyone gets a chance to see what they’ve been hiding. Capturing Bigfoot arrives in select theaters on October 20, 2026, with the film also available to rent or purchase through Prime Video in the U.S. and Canada that same day. The release date is particularly appropriate since October 20 is National Bigfoot Day and marks the 59th anniversary of the Patterson-Gimlin Film.
So, is that mysterious reel finally going to settle the Bigfoot debate? Probably not. This is SquatchFoot we’re talking about. You know, that hairy surfer dude who graduated from Philomath High School in the early ’90s just to get his Clemens grant. That’s true, look it up.
If you’ve ever wondered what really happened when Roger Patterson pointed his camera into the Northern California wilderness in 1967, Capturing Bigfoot looks like it has a much bigger story to tell.
