Leni Riefenstahl is a most remarkable woman who began as a dancer seduced by the art of film. Born one hundred years ago, she began an acting career as a daredevil climber in a masculine genre of film known as the “mountain film”. After starring in such films as Der Heilige Berg (The Sacred Mountain) and Der Grosse Sprung (The Large Branch), she tackled yet another male-dominated territory – directing. She directed and starred in The Blue Light in 1932, a feature film set in the Alps, where she climbed barefoot and untethered.

Her talent, strength and beauty caught the eye of many fans, including Adolf Hitler. She was asked to direct his documentary for the Nazi party’s rally in Nuremberg. Historians discuss this film as the best propaganda film ever made, but Leni Riefenstahl argues it documents Hitler’s messages of hope to an economically depressed Germany: that there will be work and peace. There is no question that Triumph of the Will is an artfully crafted film, but as I watch it today, it is incredibly chilling to see the Germans allow themselves to be led by this deranged leader. Leni Riefenstahl was one of these Germans who succumbed to his charisma, and every filmmakers’ dream – an unlimited budget to make an artful film and not just “a boring newsreel” as she says in the biographical documentary, The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl.

In 1936, she filmed the Olympics in Berlin with over 40 cameramen shooting over 250 miles of film. It is a celebration of the “body beautiful” as divers swoop through the air like birds and javelin throwers are likened to Grecian gods. Leni Riefenstahl and her crew initiated various styles of filming sports activities that are taken for granted today. Pits were dug for the camera crew around the field in order to shoot the athletes against the sky. Wagons were set up to race alongside the runners and capture their expressions. Sometimes close-ups were nearly impossible, so she filmed various scenes from the athletes’ training periods and spliced this footage into the final film. Olympia took nearly two years to complete.

In 1938, Leni Riefenstahl toured America to promote Olympia. During this time, she rejected the headlines in American newspapers and claimed that the atrocities during Kristallnacht were all lies. She still had faith in Hitler. She could not find an American distributor for Olympia and went home. She began work on a new film, Tiefland, which was greatly delayed during wartime.

Although Olympia won various international awards and rave reviews, she was blacklisted after World War II and accused of being a member of the Nazi party or being a Nazi sympathiser. She was arrested and brought to trial – but was “denazified” in 1945. She has never shaken this contamination of her career. When Tiefland was finally released in 1954, it received little recognition from the public, yet stirred controversy by the rumours that Riefenstahl used Gypsy inmates from concentration camps as extras.

She did not let her blacklist status stop her from exploring and creating. During the 1960’s, she spent time photographing Nubian tribes in Africa. When these photos of nearly nude tribal folk were exhibited, she was criticized for glorifying “fascist ideals” and having an obsession with perfection.

Ms. Riefenstahl has always been interested in beauty and harmony as an artist. Her most recent interests involve the underwater world. She was certified as a scuba diver while in her 90’s and took her photography below the water’s surface to capture a different world. On August 22nd, on Leni Riefenstahl’s 100th birthday, her first film since 1954 will be released, Impressionen unter Wassen, featuring her underwater adventures.