Teenager hits the big screen in hunt for Bigfoot

Daniel co-directed the documentary My Bigfoot Life, charting his hunt for the mythical Bigfoot

A teenager has hit the big screen after his hunt for a mythical creature was made into a new documentary.

Daniel Lee Barnett, 15, from Stogursey, Somerset, travelled from the Quantock Hills to Washington in the US in search of the elusive Bigfoot with a team of experts.

My Bigfoot Life starts with Daniel's discovery of a large footprint in woods near his home, which DNA tests showed contained traces of ancient ape.

The film, which also charts Daniel's struggles with autism, has been released in cinemas and has now been picked up by streaming services in the UK and America.

"I had the pleasure of filming with some of the amazing researchers in the Bigfoot world," Daniel said.

"It was just a pleasure to learn from them and have them as my mentors."

The documentary follows the hunt for Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, which means "wild man", after large footprints were found in Northern California in 1958.

Despite no conclusive evidence, such as bones or photographs, the Bigfoot has become a cultural icon, according to experts in the field known as cryptozoology, and is the subject of books, movies and television shows.

"Washington is known as the Bigfoot capital of the world and the top number of sightings is in the Olympic National Park in Washington State," Daniel said.

The hunt took the team to the Olympic National Park in Washington, US

Speaking to BBC Somerset, Daniel said that during filming for the documentary he spoke at a conference in Florida about his autism in front of an audience of 5,000 people.

"There have been many times when I've strugged at school - sometimes I can't learn in four walls, in a box, but when I started to go into the forest I began to calm down and relax in life.

"Going from walking out with nanny and gramps and looking for deer, then starting to look for different critters, we thought the world needs the message about how important it is to get outside," he said.

'Just phenomenal'

Daniel's grandparents, who took part in the filming, said his enjoyment of exploring in the outdoors, and his developing passion for hunting for Bigfoot, had helped him come out of his shell.

"From the first time Daniel said, 'could we go out and try our skills hunting for things in the forest', - not Bigfoot obviously but deer, rabbits, trees, flowers - the difference was instant," said Ms Roberts.

"A complete calmness came over him; he was chatty, enthusiastic and it escalated from there to bigger things," she said.

Mr Roberts said: "I can't begin to explain what a difference it made to him.

"To see him before with the struggles he was going through with social interactions, with schooling, afterwards, the release you could see that he went through was just phenomenal."

Daniel filmed the documentary with his grandparents, Adrian and Jill Roberts

"After creating a film for two years and I finally sit in the cinema with Dad and the production crew, and I'm watching it, it's so weird to see the work that we've done, it was awesome," Daniel added.