Leni Riefenstahl

An undeniably brilliant filmmaker who broke new ground with pioneering techniques, Leni Riefenstahl nonetheless lived in infamy for her friendship with and adulation of Adolf Hitler during the reign of Nazi Germany. In fact, her extraordinary talent proved to be her downfall; she used her genius to create the breathtaking, but frightening "Triumph of the Will" (1935), a chronicle of Hitler's famed Nuremberg rally that portrayed the Fuehrer as a god come to Earth to save the German people. Though the film was hailed as masterpiece, Riefenstahl was unable to live down her reputation for being a Nazi sympathizer - a label that dogged her for the rest of her life. Meanwhile, she kept Hitler in the background for her other documentary masterpiece, "Olympia" (1938), which chronicled the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. While she depicted the German athletes as somewhat godlike, keeping to Hitler's ideal of Aryan superiority, Riefenstahl did focus much of her attention on American hero, Jesse Owens, an African-American who bested Germany's top athletes to take home four gold medals. After the war, Riefenstahl spent time under arrest and faced several inquiries, but was ultimately allowed her freedom. But that freedom was limited, as her reputation prevented her from making another film. Riefenstahl turned to photography instead and found personal reconciliation through taking pictures of the Nuba tribe in Africa. Though she came to terms with her past on a personal level, Riefenstahl lived her public life in association with the Nazi party until the end.