Capturing Bigfoot Documentary Explores Newly Discovered 1960s Film Reel

# Lost Bigfoot Footage Surfaces After Decades in a Safe — New Documentary Explores the Patterson-Gimlin Connection A fascinating new documentary is making waves in the Bigfoot community, and the story behind how it came together is almost as intriguing as the footage itself. Filmmaker Mark Evans recently sat down with Sasquatch Odyssey to discuss his film *Capturing Bigfoot*, a 102-minute deep dive into one of the most controversial topics in Sasquatch research — the Patterson-Gimlin film and the possibility that newly discovered 16mm footage could shed new light on what really happened back in 1967. The whole project started with a simple email in June 2022. Teresa Brooks, who works at the same college in Washington state where Evans teaches filmmaking, reached out asking for help projecting a roll of 16mm film that had been locked in her father's safe since the late 1960s. Her dad, Norm Johnson, had passed away years earlier, and the film had been sitting there alongside rare coins and a copy of the famous *Argosy* magazine — the very issue that first published stills from the Patterson-Gimlin film. Now here's where it gets interesting. Norm Johnson wasn't just some random guy with a film reel. He was the head of the film department at Boeing. For years, researchers like John Green, Peter Byrne, and René Dahinden had traced the development of the Patterson film back to Boeing, suspecting someone there had helped with the production — but they could never confirm who. Norm Johnson's name had never come up in any of those investigations. Until now. Teresa's uncle, Dave Johnson, was the real connection to Roger Patterson. The two were close friends, and Dave worked as a pressman at Chinook Press — the same company that printed Patterson's book *Do Abominable Snow Men of America Really Exist?* According to interviews Greg Long conducted for his book *Making Bigfoot*, Dave and Patterson were practically inseparable. There are even stories about Dave wearing Bigfoot costumes around Yakima and reportedly getting shot once while suited up. You can't make this stuff up. Evans didn't stumble into this project blindly. Before filming a single interview, he immersed himself in the research — reading everything he could get his hands on, including all of John Green's books, listening to 130 audio tapes of raw interviews with people like René Dahinden and Patterson's brothers (many of whom have since passed), and studying the work of researchers like Jeff Meldrum and Bill Munns. He even had access to Greg Long's private audio collection, which contained material that never made it into the book. What makes this documentary stand out is how Evans structured the story. He doesn't reveal the new footage until well into the third act — over an hour into the film. The first half builds the historical context, the players involved, and the web of connections between Boeing, Chinook Press, and Patterson's inner circle. Then, when the footage finally appears, it raises more questions than it answers. The title of Evans's documentary — *Capturing Bigfoot: When Roger Faked Patty* — hints at where his research ultimately leads. While he acknowledges Patterson was a flawed and complicated figure, Evans doesn't necessarily agree with Greg Long's more damning conclusions. He paints Patterson as someone ahead of his time, a showman who understood the power of media long before anyone else in the Sasquatch community did. For anyone who's spent time digging into the Patterson-Gimlin film — whether you're a believer, a skeptic, or somewhere in between — this documentary is worth checking out. Evans has promised to release deleted scenes and additional interviews after the film drops, so there's likely even more to come. The full interview over on Sasquatch Odyssey is definitely worth a watch. Evans goes into much more detail about his research process, the people he interviewed, and the moments that changed the direction of the project. It's one of those conversations that reminds you just how deep the Patterson-Gimlin rabbit hole really goes — and how many stories are still out there, waiting in safes and attics, to be told.