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3 articles from 2008

7 July 2008 4:33 PM, PDT | GetTheBigPicture.net | See recent Get The Big Picture news »

My first exposure to the work of documentary filmmaker Bruce Burgess was when Bigfootville aired on cable last fall. Yes, it’s exactly what you think it is: Tracking Bigfoot through rural southern Oklahoma. Being from Oklahoma, I was fascinated by the subject because I never heard anyone talk about seeing Bigfoot the whole time I lived there. In fact, the opening scene in the film takes place in the stultifying, provincial little hamlet where I went to college.

Since Bigfootville, Burgess has covered topics as varied as UFOs, the Bermuda Triangle, and the Holy Grail. Yes, he’s a modern Indiana Jones. Or a real life Robert Langdon.

Burgess’ new film, Bloodline, follows the clues in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, clues that have been in the mainstream if not in the mainstream thought for many years. Spending three years searching for some hint of proof of »

- Colin Boyd

12 May 2008 7:03 AM, PDT | WENN | See recent WENN news »

The director/star of new documentary Bloodline fears the film's success will ruin plans to excavate what is believed to be the tomb of Mary Magdalene.

British filmmaker Bruce Burgess and a team of amateur archaeologists stumbled across the ancient burial chamber in the countryside around French village Rennes-le-Chateau while researching myths thrown up by Dan Brown's bestseller the Da Vinci Code.

And now Burgess has handed over his findings, which appear in the rivetting new film, to the French government in the hope of persuading officials to excavate the area this summer.

But he fears his own film will scupper plans - because it will highlight what experts could find in the tomb.

In Bloodline, archaeologist Ben Hammott, manages to poke a small camera through a hole in the roof of the tomb. The footage he captured reveals a mummified corpse and tests have proven the body hails from the Middle East.

Burgess tells Wenn, "We're all absolutely gagging to go back, so when the French government has worked out how we can actually drill without the whole lot dropping on top of the corpse, we'll be there.

"So far, there appears to be no red tape (restrictions), but I imagine that will start to become a factor if this film becomes more well known.

"If everyone starts talking about Jesus and Mary and the Vatican, it's bound to pass the desk of the French president and it'll be an interesting phonecall if the Vatican ever called the President and said, 'Y'know, we just don't want to know what's in there.'"

Burgess' film sets out to pose questions about theories Jesus and Mary were married - and that Mary fled to France with the couple's children after the crucifixion. »

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23 April 2008 12:17 AM, PDT | WENN | See recent WENN news »

Late British royal Lord Lichfield has been dragged into the Da Vinci Code controversy - and may have been killed to protect secrets revealed in Dan Brown's bestseller.

In an explosive new documentary, called Bloodline, British filmmaker Bruce Burgess chronicles his three-year investigation into claims Jesus Christ did not die on the cross, but fled to France with his wife Mary Magdalene and their children.

Burgess took on the study after associates told him that much of Brown's compelling Da Vinci Code story was true, and that "a body of evidence" proves the bloodline of Jesus and Mary exists in a tomb beneath a French church.

But, as Burgess attempted to uncover the truth about the fabled secret society The Priory of Sion, whose members, it's claimed, guard the secret of the "royal" bloodline and the whereabouts of the religious "treasure" he came up against a number of hurdles.

And when he thought he'd made a breakthrough after Lord Lichfield offered to show him "vital" documents that would aid the documentarian's research, the royal was found dead in November, 2005.

In the thrilling new movie, which is released in America next month, Burgess says, "A man we were going to meet, Lord Lichfield, died last night at a party. Apparently he died of a cerebral haemorrhage.

"He was going to show us some papers he had connected to the Priory and this whole mystery."

Burgess confesses he has no idea if Lord Lichfield was actually a member of the Priory of Sion, but the late royal did have a copy of Nicolas Poussin's The Shepherds of Arcadia in his study. The painting is believed to be a coded picture that all Priory members hold dear.

Nicolas Haywood, a man claiming to have crucial links to the Priory of Sion - and the adopted son of Prince Charles' former advisor Sir Harold Haywood, agreed to speak with Burgess for the film.

He revealed that some Priory members are keen not to reveal ancient secrets about their society and the treasure they protect - and they will take drastic steps to halt unwanted publicity.

He suggests those who reveal too much could suffer "a cerebral haemorrhage or stroke," which is "indicative of the use of a certain poison."

The documentary maker, who discovered his cellphone and hotelphones were bugged during his investigation, also learned that three men who recently handed over revealing paperwork connected to the Priory of Sion to a French library were all found dead within 24 hours of each other.

Each one died from a cerebral haemorrhage or stroke - the same fate that met Lord Lichfield.

In the film, Burgess states, "Maybe it's a coincidence that he (Lord Lichfield) died of a cerebral haemorrhage, and maybe it's a coincidence that he died just a few days before we were going to meet him and talk to him about the bloodline."

The director admits Lord Lichfield's sudden death gave him pause for thought: "If members of the Priory had been killed to stop information being revealed then it was possible that they would try and stop me too."

Burgess' findings, documented in Bloodline, have led the filmmaker to believe the "mummified" bodies of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and their children - together with treasures that prove the family's identity - are buried beneath the rural French town Rennes-le-Chateau, where a priest, called Berenger Sauniere, discovered secret documents while renovating his country church in 1891.

The discovery was immediately seized by Vatican officials, and Sauniere was financially rewarded for his co-operation.

But Burgess believes the priest left clues behind in the Rennes-le-Chateau church, so anyone investigating the bloodline myth could use his pointers.

The filmmaker stumbled upon "stolen" parchments that he believes include Sauniere's clues, and joined forces with a team of bloodline enthusiasts to follow riddles and clues dotted all around Rennes-le-Chateau in an effort to find the site of Jesus' final resting place.

The discovery of the site has been reported to the French government and plans are now underway for a full scale archaeological examination, according to Burgess. »

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3 articles from 2008