Directed by Leni Riefenstahl • 1938 • Germany

More has been written about Leni Riefenstahl's OLYMPIA than about any other sports documentary in history. Starting with a long and lyrical overture, evoking the origins of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, Riefenstahl covers twenty-one athletic events in FESTIVAL OF THE NATIONS, culminating with the marathon. Despite the film's fascist origins, OLYMPIA has achieved a certain respectability and endures as a monument of cinema, and of a malevolent ideology.