What if? (Possible Legal Issues with a wider release of "Capturing Bigfoot"
It's been a day or two since we've had a post on the film that everybody's talking about but almost no one has seen "Capturing Bigfoot."
When the film was pulled from subsequent festivals after SXSW 2026 with the public claim that the director et. al. were concerned with "piracy" I started wondering IF there were legal entanglements that didn't become apparent (or actionable) until the film was shown to the public, because that triggers an entirely different set of issues: like a clear claim of ownership.
Let's accept that the Johnson family has had possession of the "found footage" for a long time (since the late 1960s).
Whose actual property was the filmstrip originally?
Norm Johnson's? Al DeAtely's? Roger Patterson's?
I understandi that a "found footage" film cannot get E&O insurance without strong verification of the actual origins (despite the hype).
I recall that the Rene Dahinden estate did not choose to participate in the "Capturing Bigfoot" film.
Dahinden was awarded ownership of various elements (51% of the film, all individual frames of the film, etc.) as a result of a 1978 court case, and that would seemlingly pass to his estate.
What do you think? Is it likely that the film is having legal issues even before release?
Let me be clear, I am only speculating and have no direct knowledge of any matter that has not been made public.