Overview

• Director Andres Veiel received first-time access to Riefenstahl’s private estate, with researchers digitizing hundreds of boxes of photos, documents, recordings, and films.
• The documentary presents a 1952 letter from an adjutant alleging Riefenstahl ordered Jews removed from a marketplace in Końskie in 1939, a claim reported in the film and not independently corroborated in the coverage.
• Relying on archival images and Riefenstahl’s own recorded words, the film highlights contradictions between her public narrative and the historical record.
• Veiel’s thesis underscores how Riefenstahl’s aesthetics advanced Nazi propaganda, using her work to examine the political power of images and its relevance today.
• Riefenstahl is now screening at Lincoln Center and select theaters, opens in Los Angeles on September 12, and is slated to reach select streaming platforms in October.