Leni Riefenstahl Seen here having a last minute discussion before the torch bearer arrives, durring the making of the film: Olympia. Born in Berlin, Germany Riefenstahl started her career as a self-styled interpretive dancer. In a 2002 interview she said dancing was what made her truly happy. After injuring a knee she attended a film about mountains and became impressed with both them and the possibilities of the medium. She went to the Alps for about a year and when she returned, confidentially approached Arnold Fanck, the director of the film she'd seen earlier, asking for a role in his next film. Riefenstahl went on to star in a number of Fanck's bergfilme, presenting herself as an athletic and adventuresome young woman with suggestive appeal. When presented with the opportunity to direct The Blue Light she took it. Her main interest at first was in fictional films. She heard Adolf Hitler speak at a rally in 1932 and, mesmerized by his powers as a public speaker, offered her services as a filmmaker. In 1933 she directed a short film about a Nazi party meeting. Hitler then asked her to film the Nazi Party rally at Nuremberg in 1934. She refused, suggesting Hitler ask Walter Ruttmann to film it instead. Riefenstahl later consented and made Triumph of the Will, a documentary film glorifying Hitler and widely regarded as one of the most effective pieces of propaganda ever produced, although Riefenstahl claimed she intended it only as a documentary. She went on to make a film about the German Wehrmacht, released in 1935 as Tag der Freiheit (Day of Freedom)