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 a bloodline that extends from Jesus through Mary Magdalene – thought to be his wife in this scenario – and down to their descendants, Burgess has uncovered some pretty startling things in the south of France. But is any of it true? The Big Picture conducted its own investigation with Bruce Burgess.

A lot of people will look at this film and see that you made Bigfootville and come to the conclusion that you’re just a crackpot trying to prove that every conspiracy theory is correct.

Here’s the thing: I get accused of that nearly every day - “Bloodline can’t be real because it’s the guy that went after Bigfoot and UFOs.” The reality is that I have a passionate interest in unexplained mysteries and the paranormal and I try to deal with each one as I find them.

So, yes, the legend of Bigfoot and UFOs is that they’re seen by – excuse the term – redneck Americans who are idiots and don’t know anything and that’s why they’re seeing things that can’t possibly exist. That’s the story with the big city intelligentsia.

But when I hit the ground in rural Oklahoma and when I hit the ground looking for UFOs, you find something very, very different. You find people that are often very stigmatized by the experience. In the case of the Bigfoot findings, there were policemen, a sheriff, doctors, high school football coaches, all of whom didn’t want to talk to us because they were worried about being labeled as kooks. And when you find someone and you take the time to get to know them, you find a different story.

And that’s very similar to Bloodline in that, on the face of it, it’s a fantastical idea that [Jesus and Mary Magdalene] were married, had children, and the church had lied about it for so long. And yet, when I did the investigation, all I kept on turning up were questions about the doctrine and archaeological facts, which actually did add up. And I think there’s a difference between armchair critics who dismiss any new discoveries or investigations into these subjects as nonsense that can’t possibly be true, compared to people like me who actually do get on the ground and do the work to actually meet these people. When you do that – when you eyeball them and you’re face to face with them – the truth is often very different to what’s portrayed in the media.

Much of the film, and indeed much of your investigation, stems from conversations you have with men claiming to be in the Priory of Sion. Anyone who’s seen or read Da Vinci Code knows what they’re supposed to be all about. So how did you get a supposed secret society to talk to you and why are they so keen on talking now?

Good question. The Priory are an enigma in that their history is kind of shadowy and hard to unravel in a way. We met two representatives claiming to be mouthpieces for the Priory of Sion. They explained that the Priory, rather than being a cloak-wearing club, is much more a loose collection of esoteric artists, alchemists who for as long as Christianity has been around but they were known as magi, sages, or high priests. When Christianity came along, this alternate stream of Gnosticism and spirituality was forced to go underground.

Its head has reared itself over the years in the guise of Leonardo Da Vinci, Botticelli, Jean Cocteau more recently, and I think every few centuries they make themselves known again and promulgate this message that is very much at odds with the Catholic Church. So that’s who I think the chaps are that we meet in the film.

Why they’re doing it now so strongly and why they’re leading us to these clues and relics and the tomb that we found, I think is because they can see more than ever, in modern history certainly, the Catholic Church to be under fire on unprecedented levels – money scandals, pedophilia, faith, the ordination of gay bishops and women – and I think on a practical level that they think this is the time to show some of their hand, which they say completely blows the Catholic doctrine out of the water.

And is there a specific reason you think you were chosen to reveal some of these facts for them? Why are you the portal?

I think it goes back to that first question you asked me about Bigfoot and UFOs. I like to think that I’m a rational, down to earth human being with a curiosity and a passion to find the truth, but unlike a lot of journalists who dismiss the Priory of Scion or the facts in Dan Brown’s book as nonsense, I prefer to look at them as unanswered questions.

I went into Bloodline with an open mind not at all afraid that there had been hoaxes in the past, probably perpetrated by the Priory of Scion. What interested me was really who was the Priory, what was their agenda, and I think because I went into it with an open mind as opposed to 60 Minutes, [who] did a sort of expose to try to prove that they were a hoax. I think that’s why they gave me the access, because they saw an opportunity to get their agenda across in my interview.

There has been a lot of talk that because of the film’s growing notoriety and because of what you believe you’ve found that the French government will quash any effort to excavate the site of all of this treasure. Do you have any fears that that might actually happen, that maybe they’ll just close it off entirely?

I hope not. We discovered a tomb in southern France that has a mummified corpse inside and it’s surrounded by chests. Even if it’s just a Knight’s Templar, it’s a huge find. Of course, it may be a member of the bloodline; we won’t know until we excavate it. 

I think the French archaeological ministry we’re dealing with [is] more fascinated with the dating and where the treasure is from, and I think that outweighs at the moment the theological issues that a Catholic country might have with the discovery.

Also, the cat’s out of the bag. There’s footage of the tomb on our website, bloodline-themovie.com. It’s kind of hard to put the genie back in the bottle now. They really have to excavate the site, and I think if they stall or stonewall on this, it’s going to bring a lot of unwanted grief on them.

I’m hopeful that this September after the summer holidays in France, we’ll break ground and see what’s in that chamber. And what’s in there could be a huge. It could be an astonishing find.

And the dig is scheduled for September?

We can’t do it in July or August because we have to do it with the French authorities and they’re on summer holiday. (Laughs) Yes, even the Templar treasure waits for the French summer holiday!

Bloodline is currently playing in theaters nationwide. Because it’s opening in our own backyard on Friday, July 11^th at the Harkins Valley Art in Tempe, we have pairs of run of engagement passes good through July 17^th. Bloodline producer René Barnett will host a Q & A session after the early 7pm showing on July 11^th. If you’re interested in passes, send us an e-mail, and please specify if you want to attend the Q & A.