A new documentary is taking another hard look at the most famous piece of Bigfoot film ever shot. Capturing Bigfoot, directed by Marq Evans, arrived on October 20, 2026, the 59th anniversary of the Patterson-Gimlin film, in limited theaters and on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S. and Canada. It premiered at SXSW in March.
The film is built around a roughly 40-second reel of 16 mm footage that reportedly sat in a safe for decades before its owner contacted Evans in 2022. He says markings on the reel indicate it was shot in 1966, a year before Roger Patterson filmed the creature at Bluff Creek, and the documentary presents it as a possible rehearsal. The Baker City Herald notes that the stamp on the film shows only when the film stock was made, so the clip’s exact date can’t be proven. The film also features Patterson’s son, Clint, who says his mother told him the truth about it, and Bob Heironimus, who has long claimed he wore the costume.
Reaction has been strong. In a column for the Baker City Herald, editor Jayson Jacoby wrote that the film convinced him the 1967 footage was staged. He also reports that Finding Bigfoot stars Cliff Barackman and James “Bobo” Fay have said on their podcast that they now consider it a probable hoax, while stressing that this doesn’t mean there is no such animal. Newsweek points out that the new footage doesn’t by itself settle the debate, and that Bob Gimlin has continued to deny the film was staged.
For anyone following Bigfoot on screen, it’s the release to watch this fall.
Sources: Baker City Herald (column), November 5, 2026; Newsweek.