Leni Riefenstahl's show-biz experience began with "an experiment". She wanted to know what it felt like to dance on the stage. Success as a dancer gave way to film acting when she attracted the attention of film director Arnold Fanck, subsequently starring in some of his "mountaineering" pictures. With Fanck as her mentor, Riefenstahl began directing films.

Her penchant for artistic work earned her acclaim, and her films awards, across Europe. It was her work on Triumph of the Will, a documentary commissioned by the Nazi government about Adolf Hitler, that would come back to haunt her after the atrocities of WWII. Despite her protests to the contrary, Riefenstahl was considered an intricate part of the Third Reich's propaganda machine. Castigated, she did not make a movie for over 50 years.