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We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, consider supporting us as a member. Join Us VENICE — Soviet-era filmmaker Dziga Vertov, whom many regard to be the grandfather of the documentary form, believed in directors’ duty to engage with the politics of their time.
This ethos is deeply felt as both theme and guiding spirit at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, at which a number of renowned filmmakers premiered strong nonfiction cinema. Andres Veiel’s documentary Riefenstahl (2024), centers the Nazi-era director Leni Riefenstahl. The film draws on her personal archives, which were opened after her death in 2003.
In her 101 years, her image was manifold: young starlet in 1920s adventure films; feted auteur with propaganda films Triumph of the Will (1935) and Olympia (1938); Nazi sympathizer; and, in her final act, a woman who believed her.