Beyond the Beyond: “Capturing Bigfoot” – Does It Really Debunk the Original Patterson/Gimlin Footage?

Beyond the Beyond: “Capturing Bigfoot” – Does It Really Debunk the Original Patterson/Gimlin Footage?

In 1967, two men were making a documentary near Bluff Creek, CA. They were on horseback, traversing through the woods, over steep cliffs, and through zigzagging rivers high up in the mountains. These men were Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin, two cowboys from Yakima, WA, who had spent years at that point trying to prove the existence of the mythical creature known as Bigfoot.

As they rounded a corner, Patterson spotted what he had been looking for: a giant, humanoid creature standing against a backdrop of tall pines. She would later be known as Patty, which, ironically enough, was the name of Roger Patterson’s wife. We’ll get to her in a minute. In a flurry of motion, Roger jumped off his horse and grabbed his rented 16mm camera, struggling to find his footing as he captured 53 seconds that would go down in history as proof, for many, of the existence of Sasquatch.

For six decades, that film has continued to capture the imagination of people all over the globe. It has been dissected, rejected, criticized, publicized, scrutinized, stabilized, lauded, applauded, written about, and talked about by everyone from armchair experts to anthropologists. MK Davis has spent countless hours trying to get to the bottom of what is on that film.

Many books have been written about what was captured that day. Some have devoted their lives to it, whether that means solving the riddle or trying to debunk it.

And now there is a new documentary with some pretty big claims that we’ll discuss here. It is called Capturing Bigfoot, by director Marq Evans who has a brand-new take on what really happened that day.

His focus is on the creature and its origins, but also on the human element behind the film. From financial desperation to secret investors, custom costumes, and lie detector tests, many stones are overturned during the course of the hour-and-a-half documentary.

But there is also something completely brand-new that Marq has managed to unearth, and that is some previously unseen footage kept in a vault for over six decades. This short segment of film provides a rare, direct look at what was happening behind the scenes prior to that famous October day in Bluff Creek.

It presents a dry run, a rehearsal, taken in Yakima, of someone in a suit suspiciously similar to the creature seen in the original Bluff Creek footage. The person inside the suit is different, and the costume is not yet in its final form, but make no mistake: whatever it is, it looks like Patty.

One could ask, “What if this was shot years later and presented as being a dry run?” Well, that would be a good theory, except for the man on the horse riding through the scene. That long-haired man, compared with other photographs from around the same time period, appears to be a young Bob Gimlin.

The documentary also explored the relationship between Clint Patterson (Roger’s son) and Patricia Patterson (Roger’s wife), and how the rights and money that have come in because of the original footage have fractured their relationship over the years. Both make some startling claims as to the authenticity of the film, but I won’t spoil it for you.

This may upset some diehard Bigfoot enthusiasts, but in terms of technical origin, the 1966 rehearsal footage and family accounts deliver some serious blows to the authenticity of the Bluff Creek sighting, and all signs point to it being a masterfully executed hoax.

See a side by side here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/bigfoot/comments/1xaheqa/original_footage_compared_to_rehearsal_footage/

Facebook is alive with people talking about the documentary, with many refusing to believe the wool could ever be pulled over their eyes so tightly. Some claim the footage was faked or shot later; others claim it was AI or that someone who looked like Bob Gimlin was riding the horse. I suspect the validity of this footage, much like the original, will be talked about, written about, argued about, picked apart frame by frame, compared, contrasted, and commercialized for years to come.

Have you had a sighting? Message @beyondthebeyond1 on Instagram.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Eastern Sierra Now. Readers are encouraged to conduct further research and consult with relevant experts or professionals before making any decisions or taking any actions based on the information provided in this article.

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