Riefenstahl
After the screening, join us for a Q&A (via Zoom) with director Andres Veiel!
Filmmaker and Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl is one of the most contentious figures of the 20th century. Her films Triumph of the Will (1935) and Olympia (1938) defined fascist aesthetics: perfectly staged body worship, and the celebration of all that is “superior” and victorious, simultaneously projecting contempt for the “imperfect” and “weak.”
Riefenstahl–who first broke into the German film industry as an actress–was part of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels’ inner circle and her films were used in direct service of the Nazis’ genocidal regime. Yet, after the war, she spent decades denying her association with Nazi ideology and claiming ignorance of the Holocaust.
How did she become the Reich’s preeminent filmmaker if she was just a “hired hand”? Director Andres Veiel confronts this spurious claim, peeling back the layers of denial and manipulation that Riefenstahl carefully constructed around her legacy through the use of never-before-seen documents from Riefenstahl’s estate, including 700 boxes of her personal archives, private films, photos, recordings and letters.
During her long life after the fall of Nazism, she remained unapologetic, managing to control and shape her legacy. In personal documents, she mourns her “murdered ideals.” Meanwhile, her work experienced a renaissance, gaining esteem for its masterful technical skill.
Today, Riefenstahl’s aesthetics are more present than ever. In an era where fascism is on the rise again, fake news is prevalent, and the meaning of political imagery is constantly dissected and debated, Andres Veiel’s mesmerizing new film shows that Leni Riefenstahl is more relevant than ever.
New England Premiere
Winner – Venice Film Festival, Cinema & Arts Award
About Andres Veiel
Andres Veiel was born in 1959 in Stuttgart and studied Psychology in Berlin. After attending seminars in Directing and Dramaturgy at the Artist House Bethanien in Berlin, he has been active writing film and theater scripts and lectures at the Free University in Berlin. His films include the highly-acclaimed Black Box Germany (2001) which received the German Film Award for Best Documentary in 2002 and the European Film Award, Die Spielwütigen (2004), The Kick (2006), the feature If Not Us, Who (2011) which screened in Competition in Berlin, and the award-winning documentary Beus (2017). Veiel`s latest film Riefenstahl premiered at the Venice Film Festival in August 2024 went on to win the Guild Film Prize for Best Documentary and the Youth Jury Award at the Leipzig Film Art Fair. A captivating insight into the private estate of Leni Riefenstahl, who became world-famous with her Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will but kept denying any closer ties to the regime. Veiel uses documents from Riefenstahl's estate, including private films, photos, recordings and letters. The film uncovers fragments of her biography and places them in an extended historical context.
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