I Want To Believe

         Sasquatch. Yeti. Bigfoot. One of the greatest challenges of the 21^st century is proving the existence of this creature. A man-like ape that has covered the pages of Native American folklore, Bigfoot has been the debate of what lurks in the darkness. In 2007, a research team went out looking for evidence of the legendary creature. What they found created the documentary: Bigfoot Lives.

          Bigfoot’s origins begin early in Native American folklore. Tribes of the northwest region speak of a large, hairy, beast standing 6-9 feet tall. The beast was foul smelling and in some stories believed to have mythical powers, but those ideas have lingered in the stories. The Native American peoples were the only ones to truly believe in this creature, until the famous Patterson-Gimlin film of 1967. This was the first time a Bigfoot had been captured on film, or was believed to have been captured. This footage inspired Tom Biscardi, self-proclaimed world renowned Bigfoot hunter, to spend most of his life looking for this creature.  Bigfoot Lives presents modern day viewers with some substantial evidence that could finally end the debate. 

        The documentary sets its aim directly onto skeptics. The beginning of the film has Biscardi saying, “yes, Bigfoot lives.” It’s a very confident claim from the self-proclaimed Bigfoot hunter. Although aimed at skeptics, most of the content within the actual film caters believers. After heading to certain regions, a title page of the evidence found will be listed combined with a decision determining if this area is an actual Bigfoot habitat. I don’t believe that many skeptics would agree with the claim, but it seems that Biscardi was confident these search results would reiterate that the creature exists.

Hans Mobius Picture

       The film provides evidence being revealed for the first time. The evidence shown by the Searching for Bigfoot team are a decomposed hand, leg, and eyewitness video of an actual Bigfoot attack. The hand and leg are pretty significant finds. Both went through DNA testing to reveal that the strand could not be identified (http://cryptomundo.com/bigfoot-report/bf-hand-xray/). The video, however, doesn't prove a thing. The camera work is shaky and extremely blurry. It's hard to really believe this guy was attacked by a Bigfoot from the footage. It seems like he just went into the forest and fell down. The Searching for Bigfoot team wanted to prove the existence of Bigfoot, but were only able to create a very poorly made documentary. The camera work was very shaking, the sound mixing was scratchy, and the actual editing of the documentary was difficult to follow. Many of the testimonials given by people were pretty much the same story, except for a man in Montana. Bruce Schlidt gave an emotional testimony about his encounter, but had no clear evidence.Another eyewitness, Hans Mobius, a New Yorker, claimed he had a photo of the actual creature. The photo looks fake. It's interesting that a world renowned Bigfoot hunter would use this photo as evidence and classify this area as a Bigfoot habitat. 

Tom Biscardi

           This leads me to discuss the self-proclaimed, world renowned Bigfoot hunter: Tom C. Biscardi. Starting his search for the mythical creature in 1971, Biscardi won’t give up. He has a live podcast informing people of new findings and certain encounters, while having them pay for a subscription. This man may seem qualified from his website, but after the release of Bigfoot Lives, he has been under constant scrutiny. A detailed list of Biscardi’s lies and schemes have been brought to the public eye. He duped his subscribers by showing them an actual Bigfoot, but was unable to prove any footage. He provided a fake Bigfoot body, and has constantly been making shady deals to further his research team ( <http://squatchdetective.weebly.com/hall-of-shame---searching-for-bigfoot--tom-biscardi.html>.) His research company was also one of the production companies that produced Bigfoot Lives, along with the director Todd Douglas Baily’s company.

        Bigfoot Lives is full of empty and somewhat believable promises. There isn’t conclusive evidence that the creature exists and the man who produced the documentary has barely any credibility to prove these claims. The decomposed hand and the leg are significant finds since the DNA came back describing it as “not in the system”. I enjoyed the rawness of the documentary. The fact that Biscardi puts the evidence in front of his viewers and allows them to decide is different than a lot of documentaries where someone explains the evidence. In conclusion, this was a poorly made documentary that brings to light SOME evidence of the legendary Bigfoot. 2/5.

Hans Mobius Bigfoot Photo. Digital image. Clarence Bigfoot Followup. Blogspot, 08 Aug. 2011. Web. 24 Feb. 2017. <http://bigfootevidence.blogspot.com/2011/08/clarence-bigfoot-followup-what-has.html>.

Kulls, Steve. "Hall of Shame - Searching For Bigfoot / Tom Biscardi." Squatchdetective.com. Adirondack Research Organization, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2017. <http://squatchdetective.weebly.com/hall-of-shame---searching-for-bigfoot--tom-biscardi.html>.

"Native American Bigfoot Figures of Myth and Legend." Native American Bigfoot Characters of Myth and Legend. Native Languages of the Americas, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2017. <http://www.native-languages.org/legends-bigfoot.htm>.

"The Searching For Bigfoot Live Capture Team." Bigfoot Search Team Find Bigfoot With Us. Bigfoot Project Investments, Inc., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2017. <http://www.searchingforbigfoot.com/Tom_Biscardi/>.

Woolheater, Craig. "Gotta Give Biscardi a Hand…Of Unknown Origin." Cryptomundo. Word Press, 30 June 2006. Web. 24 Feb. 2017. <http://cryptomundo.com/bigfoot-report/bf-hand-xray/>.