Every time a Republican president stages an SUV convoy at a NASCAR race, every “strong leader” poster or video visual served up to paper-over what weaklings this or that “Dear Leader” actually are, every Z that Russians spray paint on a tank, every “Q” that promotes some crazed Big Lie in which their ends justify their means, every salute that Trump, Musk and their ideological brethren make and deny making owes a little something to Leni Riefenstahl, German filmmaker, master propogandist and Queen of Image Matters more than Substance.

Riefenstahl, “Hitler’s Filmmaker,” spent a long, post WWII life playing the “Who me?” card about her work on documentaries such as “Olympia” and “Triumph of the Will,” which were the epitome of Susan Sontag’s well-circulated definition of “fascist art.”

When George Lucas wanted to underscore regimented oppressive evil in the “Star Wars” franchise, he referred to Riefenstahl’s screen compositions. The iconography of generations of right wing movements sprung from her films.

Here’s a new German documentary that sets out to puncture a self-image Riefenstahl maintained, which nobody believed. Ever.

Coming soon?