''Bloodline'' is a 2008

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

Bruce Burgess Bruce Burgess is a documentary filmmaker. Burgess has written, directed and hosted a series of documentary specials that relate to conspiracy theory and fringe theory subject matters like Bigfoot, the Bermuda Triangle, the mummified corpse ...

and Rene Barnett, a filmmaker with an interest in

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...

claims, focused on the "

Jesus bloodline The Jesus bloodline refers to the proposition that a lineal sequence of descendants of the historical Jesus has persisted to the present time. The claims frequently depict Jesus as married, often to Mary Magdalene, and as having descendants living ...

" hypothesis and other elements of the 1982 book ''

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail ''The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail'' (published as ''Holy Blood, Holy Grail'' in the United States) is a book by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh (author), Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. The book was first published in 1982 by Jonathan Cape in ...

''. The 2008 documentary was originally released in cinemas on 9 May. "Ben Hammott" relating to his alleged discoveries made in the vicinity of

Rennes-le-Château Rennes-le-Château (; oc, Rènnas del Castèl) is a commune approximately 5 km (3 miles) south of Couiza, in the Aude department in the Occitanie region in Southern France. In 2018, it had a population of 91. This hilltop village is know ...

since 1999; Burgess claims Ben Hammott would have found the treasure of

Bérenger Saunière François-Bérenger Saunière (11 April 1852 – 22 January 1917) was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic priest in the village of Rennes-le-Château, in the Aude region. He was a central figure in the conspiracy theories surrounding ...

: a mummified corpse, which he believed were

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cru ...

. In the film, Burgess interviews several people with alleged connections to the Priory of Sion, including a Gino Sandri and Nicolas Haywood. A book by one of the documentary's researchers, Rob Howells, entitled ''Inside the Priory of Sion: Revelations from the World's Most Secret Society - Guardians of the Bloodline of Jesus'' presented the version of the Priory of Sion as given in the 2008 documentary, which contained several erroneous assertions, such as the claim that Plantard believed in the Jesus bloodline hypothesis. By 21 March 2012 Ben Hammott confessed and apologised on

Podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

interview (using his real name Bill Wilkinson) that everything to do with the tomb and related artifacts was a hoax; revealing that the actual tomb was now destroyed, being part of a full sized set located in a warehouse in England. Bruce Burgess returned to the subject matter with ''The Bloodline of Christ'' that was shown in September 2013 on the Yesterday channel.

References

External links

* 2008 films 2008 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about the paranormal Documentary films about Jesus 2008 hoaxes 2000s English-language films 2000s American films {{reli-documentary-film-stub