'Release the Bodette Film' Makes the Case for Cryptid Conservation

Release the Bodette Film, the new documentary from Karac St. Laurent of Crash-Course Cryptozoology, takes a look at an enduring cryptid mystery in North America—the creature said to lurk within one of the continent’s largest and most biologically diverse bodies of water, Lake Champlain.

At approximately 490 square miles, Lake Champlain sprawls across parts of New York and Vermont, stretching into Quebec at its northernmost point. With depths reaching 400 feet, it’s easy to imagine this lake hiding the monster known colloquially as Champ.

Release the Bodette Film takes its name from footage shot in 2005 by fishermen Dick Affolter and Pete Bodette. Known as the Bodette film, the footage is said to show a mysterious creature swimming near their boat during a fishing expedition on Lake Champlain. The film was never fully released, with only a few clips used as part of a broadcast for ABC news, and with its current ownership held by a lawyer asking for exorbitant licensing fees for its use, it likely won't be any time soon.

Much of the film is spent in interviews with eyewitnesses and researchers who’ve investigated the lake’s mystery animal for years, and an extensive survey of the existing evidence is made in the leadup to its coverage of the Bodette film. The documentary’s interest in the Bodette film is one of intellectual curiosity, but also one of concern. This is a documentary that treats its subjects—be they researchers, eyewitnesses, or potential cryptids—with respect.

A stunning amount of work has gone into this 90-minute production; from Sandra Mansi’s famous 1977 photograph to more recent photo and video evidence to echolocations recorded in the lake, seemingly no stone remains unturned in its examination of Champ and a wide variety of hypotheses are explored in its quest to identify the creature. This film may represent the most comprehensive cinematic treatment to date of the Lake Champlain monster.

But all of the other evidence is secondary to the film’s titular footage, if it represents what researchers hope it might: conclusive video of a monster in Lake Champlain. Release the Bodette Film isn’t satisfied to simply speculate on the nature of the evidence, although everything presented is thoroughly examined from an investigative viewpoint, but rather, it’s the implication of the Bodette film’s potential impact that is perhaps most compelling. The documentary posits that such powerful evidence could be an important tool in global efforts towards conservation, and that protecting the land where cryptids are said to live might be our best chance at not only finding the elusive creatures, but preserving them before it’s too late.

Release the Bodette Film is a rare thing among cryptid documentaries, as empathetic as it is intelligent. Anyone watching this film should leave it with not only a better understanding of the evidence for Champ’s existence, but why it is so important that we care about it as much as the filmmaker.

Release the Bodette Film is available for sale now through Crash-Course Cryptozoology’s website.

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