It seems the movie producers have depicted the two travelers on the road to Emmaus as two men, .... Nowhere in the Bible are we told that these followers are both male. ....Every time I teach this story, I depict the other traveler as female, because it seems more logical... and because it's inspirational to girls to have role models who were Jesus's friends. Therefore the movie would not work for me.
You bring up an excellent point, Darlena. In the Disciples of Jesus 'card' set we just put together for the Writing Team's Bible Games workshop, we included Mary of Magdala. She's another interesting case. Clearly a close disciple, but mis-identified in the early church as a sinful woman, where the Gospels say no such thing.
There's a lot written out there about who the "other" disciple might have been. It's a discussion that began almost immediately in the Early Church, in part, due to discrepancies in the Gospels regarding the names of Jesus' disciples, close followers, women's names, and familial connections. It's really too bad we can't be sure.
Tradition and various ancient texts suggest that Cleopas was related to Jesus, perhaps his uncle --i.e. Mary's brother. Tradition and texts also indicate that several of the disciples, like "James the Lesser" were his sons or related in some fashion. This means some of the disciples were Jesus' cousins.
What this also means, is that there are several candidates for who the "other" disciple was. Cleopas likely had several family members present in Jerusalem with him, not just his wife. Which one walked to Emmaus with him? We simply don't know, and maybe that's a God thing: the unnamed disciple.
One of the problems with EVERY Jesus video is that they don't adequately reflect these familial connections, and the presence of "other" disciples, such as the women who were traveling with Jesus. I suppose that they, like most of us, are conditioned by 2000 years of the painting, frescoes, and statuary. I grew up thinking of Jesus as "a man walking around with 12 men" and no one else.
The only question left, then, is "can we still teach with such limited depictions?" I would say "yes," as long as we raise the issues, as you do, of how such portrayals only tell part of the story.
Neil