Product Details

• Directors: Rob Fruchtman
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Koch Vision
• DVD Release Date: September 5, 2006
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000FWHVJG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #70,676 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

A Revealing Look at History’s Most Misunderstood Woman

TWO IN-DEPTH PROGRAMS ON ONE DVD!

Mary Magdalene – a sinner and prostitute, or the secret wife of Jesus and leader of his church? This riveting two-program investigation provides the most up-to-date information on one of the world’s most controversial religious figures.

Program One: Secrets of Mary Magdalene
Shot in Hi-Def and based on Dan Burstein’s and Arne De Keijzer’s new nonfiction book, this fascinating documentary strips away the veils of history to reveal the flesh and blood woman who served as Jesus' foremost apostle and possibly the love of his life.

Program Two: A Mary Magdalene Roundtable - The Experts Speak
With Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, Ph.D., Lesa Bellevie, Deidre Good, Susan Haskins, Elaine Pagels and Dr. Jane Schaberg
Six leading experts discuss and debate the issues surrounding Mary Magdalene, offering their insights on her historical impact and emerging legacy as a spiritual role model for the 21st century.

BONUS FEATURES
More Secrets of Mary Magdalene (30 minutes)
Topics include: Magdalene's possible founding role in early Christianity, her depiction in renaissance art, the early Gnostic view of Adam and Eve, The Song of Songs, and more.
Original Trailer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The Feminine Face Of God" ~ The First Vision, November 21, 2007

By 

Brian E. Erland "Rainbow Sphinx" (Brea, CA - USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Secrets of Mary Magdalene (DVD)

As of the writing of this review I consider the DVD `Secrets of Mary Magdalene' my Holy Grail of Magdalenia. It documentary feature contains 98 minutes of first rate, extremely well organized material that is presented in a well conceived, cohesive manner that well demand your full attention from beginning to end. Add to that an additional 30 minutes titled; `More Secrets of Mary Magdalene' and you're set for a fascinating, paradigm altering evening.

While the presentation style is similar to other documentaries on Magdalene (i.e.: `Magdalen An Intimate Portrait' and `Something About Mary Magdalene') using dramatic re-enactment, artistic representations, travelogue like sequences of sacred sites and interviews with recognized experts on the subject, this one stands out in my estimation as the best. The information offered on the Gnostics, the Holy Grail and the role of the Cathars and Templars goes far beyond the other cinematic studies. I was also pleased to see Lesa Bellevie, Jane Schaberg and Elaine Pagels interviewed in this documentary. All three were left out of the other two films. I'm also a big fan of Susan Haskins who appeared in all three!

If you're at all interested in Mary Magdalene you'll want to own this one; most definitely -5 Stars-.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Largely speculative, excellent roundtable, March 10, 2008

By 

Diego Banducci (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Secrets of Mary Magdalene (DVD)

The main program here is beautifully filmed, but most of the material involving the life of Mary Magdalene is pure speculation.

For me, the more enjoyable portion of the program was the expert roundtable, especially the contributions of Elaine Pagels and Jane Schaberg. It's always fun to watch fine minds in action, and these two women are both erudite and witty. Unfortunately, the other four people on the panel did not rise to the same standard.

It was, for instance, news to me that a woman was not competent to testify in a Jewish court of the time, which the panel then discussed in the context of how Mary's news of the risen Jesus was received. I also enjoyed the extensive discussion of the Gnostic and other non-canonical gospels. Dr. Pagels, author of The Gnostic Gospels, is generally considered to be one of the major experts, if not the major expert on that topic, and is an excellent teacher and public speaker.

One of the weaknesses of the program is its mixing of serious academic scholarship with the rank speculation of works like The Da Vinci Code.

A minor irritant is that viewers apparently can't bypass an advertisement for a follow-on to the Da Vinci Code that plays at the beginning of the disk. Hitting the Menu key on my remote did not work, I had to fast-forward through a very long advertisement.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Watch This for the "Roundtable" Discussion - only, October 29, 2010

By 

Gerard D. Launay (Berkeley, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Secrets of Mary Magdalene (DVD)

There are two parts to this disk. The first is a History Channel type "biography" of Mary Magdalene which is nominally interesting. The next part? It's an in depth "roundtable discussion" of a biblical figure by very knowledgeable thinkers. Here we have a collection of truly outstanding scholars talking seriously to each other and answering questions about the role of Mary Magdalene in the pages of scripture, or in the gnostic gospels, or in mystic Judaism, or in the lives of ordinary persons, or as a way to imagine the Divine Feminine, or as an extension of the Song of Songs, or as Christian Kabballah. It is so refreshing, yes so interesting, to hear these biblical scholars and writers discuss a subject with such exact knowledge, care, and intelligence. I think it may be the best roundtable discussion on a New Testament biblical subject available on DVD "today." (Postcript - very similar in scholarly tone is "Bill Moyers - Genesis"; alas, "that" series on PBS never made it to DVD or even to CD. It's available just in book form or in a cassette set)