Riefenstahl

Andres Veiel

Starting in the 1950s, Leni Riefenstahl recorded her telephone conversations on audio cassettes, meticulously preserving and organizing her archives. By confronting her official biography with these personal recordings and various television documents from the 1970s, director Andres Veiel paints a portrait of a filmmaker who was an apologist for the Third Reich—someone who never disavowed her political commitments and consistently downplayed her role within the Nazi regime in the name of “Art for Art’s sake.” Yet the opening of her 700 archive boxes reveals quite the opposite. What emerges is an image of Riefenstahl as opportunistic, narcissistic, and utterly devoid of remorse or regret.

In connection with the Ciné-Dîner-Rencontres event, *Documentary as Influence: Between Dissent and Propaganda*, August 22 – 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.