Preface

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Whether it is the name of the books (Fallen Film Goddess, The Intimate and Shocking Story of Adolf Hitler and Leni Riefenstahl) , the articles ("Leni Riefenstahl Sees No Evil") or the labels which are attached to her ( mistress of Hitler, "the Devil's Director", Nazi "pin-up girl", collaborator, etc) the subject of Leni Riefenstahl stirs controversy.

My analysis of the multi decade struggle of Leni Riefenstahl to break free of this controversy is that the campaign waged against her and her art emanates from preconceived ideas. Distorted ideas.  

This distortion of ideas (a seeming belief system, zealously guarded) stems from the legacy of Nazi Germany, of Adolf Hitler, the catastrophic effects of World War II and the resulting damaged psychology the world has been left with.  Yet, studies have shown that in most cases of psychological trauma, reality loses its empirical edge. The feeling of perception and remembrance causes one to become arrested in emotion. And then, in that emotional perception, there is the loss of ability to discern feelings about something from the actual objective events themselves. Through  the creation of myth (a scripted idea on how events transpired) and a simplified world view, one assigns oneself as the victim and the other as a perpetrator.

In such cases, overcoming such "wounds" requires a process that eventually moves the person towards resolution of fact and emotion. A perseverance to this process is key to such resolution. It is the goal of the therapist that fact (reality) be re-instilled in order to move the patient out of the distorted and obsessive emotions of trauma. Of course, that process is long and must remain sensitive to the need of the patient to hold onto to their pain, even their righteous claim of seeking vindication. Certainly, in treating such cases, one should remember that although reality may well be overwhelmed by belief, something did occur and that there is real pain.

Leni Riefenstahl has become the icon of history's trauma and resulting pain. Groups seeking vindication for larger issues of the Third Reich, hold up her mere existence as good cause for accusation. Yet, it appears that there is "no logical basis" for the hysteria and witch hunting that is directed at Riefenstahl. She has been endowed with status of perpetrator when there is no factual basis that she was "responsible."

Moving the world towards reality and away from accusation (issued forth again and again), is the only indicated action.  For these statements about Riefenstahl are slanderous in nature, found repeatedly to have no basis in documented reality. These are accusations of an imagined reality, which are distorted by belief, ideology, political dogma and rhetoric. And in the end such efforts appear malicious and coordinated. 

The Riefenstahl controversy we believe is driven by just such a distortion, a misread of the historical events, refusal to consider her work within the Nazi "inner circle" relative to the actual chronology of the Nazi movement. The resulted has been an factually unexplainable (yet fiercely protracted) censure which has lasted over five decades. Driven by the wounds of trauma (or perhaps the single minded retribution of those who were hurt most by that regime), the common thinking is that Riefenstahl was a political part of the Nazi experience in Germany, maybe even as many headlines describe her, a Nazi herself. Ultimately, emotion and myth dictate to such groups that her films are in and of themselves reason enough for life time condemnation. Nothing in my mind could be more tragic or less accurate. 

If you have come to this site carrying some of those preconceived ideas then it is hoped that this site will assist you in obtaining some clarity and context. It would be my hope that after such an evaluation, the emotions of our hurt world psyche will be rested in knowledge which is based on acceptance of fact; history rather than obsessive mantra. Rather than stirring the flames of controversy or propagating hate, the goal is to see events of history as they truly relate to Leni Riefenstahl's life and work; to balance the actions of one who was operating without intent to harm, within the terrible times that were the 20th Century. 

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