Hitler’s Hollywood, is a a documentary film about how Joseph Goebbels reinvented Hollywood film making for the Third Reich. After completely cleansing Jews out of filmmaking, Goebbels used the relatively new media of talkie films to legitimize anti-Semitism and euthanasia as he glorified the concept of people sacrificing their own lives for the honor of the Third Reich.   Goebbels was able to oversee the subtle mixture of entertainment, art and propaganda to indoctrinate Germany and soon all of Europe.   There was no television during the Nazi administration 1933-1945 so attending your local movie house was your only option for seeing films.  Before you could enjoy the Nazi entertainment film at your local theaters they’d show a newsreel (Fake News ) film.  There were potentially serious consequences for those movie goers that came to movie houses purposly late avoiding the newsreels. That was seen as a form of resistance by the Nazis...

Leni Riefenstahl Carice van Houten Berlin, Germany —I first talked about this last February when there was a tease article in Variety Magazine . The Jessie Owens story is coming to the big screen.   The film titled, Race  is starring  Stephan James   as Owens and he is joined Jeremy Irons  and William Hurt in this film.     Stephen Hopkins is directing the film.  Shooting  began this week in Berlin. The multi-talented Dutch actress, Carice van Houten  who happens to be my personal favorite has signed on to play the legendary German film director Leni Riefenstahl . Van Houten was cast in the once in a lifetime role of the accidental Dutch resistance hero, Rachel Stein / Ellis de Vries in Paul Verhoeven’s film, Black Book (2006).   That’s still is my favorite film of all time! Today, van Houten graces the Game of Game of Thrones  cast as the Red Priestess, Melisandre . Riefenstahl was a gorgeous dancer and...

Berlin, Germany —As a film lover and novice filmmaker I am beyond fascinated and spellbound by a truly amazing woman. She was an athlete, rock climber, mountain climber, dancer, actor, photographer, filmmaker, writer, scuba diver and major artist. This woman was gifted, talented and downright gorgeous. Leni Riefenstahl was born in 1902 in this great city. Riefenstahl was raised in prosperity and rather than follow in her father’s business footstep chose to make her mark in performance and art. Riefenstahl was a strikingly beautiful contemporary of fellow actress Marlene Dietrich. Riefenstahl had a problem, this incredibly lady had to master absolutely everything she ever tried. She made it her goal to do everything perfectly. She failed at nothing and was redundantly proven to be fearless. As a budding filmmaker she was nothing less than a major pioneer that invented cinema techniques still being used today. She’d go to any length to create an exciting film shot out of the mos...