The Wonderful, Horrible Life Of Leni Riefenstahl (DVD)

A spellbinding account of the career of the most renowned woman director, best known as Hitler's moviemaker and recently hailed by The New York Times as "one of the greatest woman filmmakers ever." In this remarkable documentary, Leni Riefenstahl addresses her past for the first time on camera. While she never actually joined the Nazi Party, as the creator of the single most effective propaganda film ever made, Triumph of the Will, Riefenstahl has spent much of her life trying to live down her association with the Third Reich. Her personal relationship with Hitler is still in question.

Feisty and charismatic at 91, Riefenstahl revisits the landmarks of her turbulent life -- from her beginnings as a daredevil actress in German "mountain films" to her direction of such stunning narratives as The Blue Light (1932) and Tiefland (1940s, released in 1954), to her infamous, brilliant documentaries Triumph of the Will (1935) and Olympia (1938), to her anthropological photographs of the now extinct Nuba tribes in Africa. The film brings the story of Riefenstahl right up to her current passion, scuba diving and shooting films of exotic aquatic life. All together, a riveting story that leaves the viewer in total awe of its controversial subject.