Synopsis:
Recently-discovered colour footage tells the story of an
extraordinary Munich weekend when Adolf Hitler and virtually the
entire Nazi leadership attended a three-day national cultural
festival, which included concerts, dancing, exhibitions and a
five-mile-long parade, titled '2,000 Years of German Culture'. The
film was shot in July 1939, just six weeks before the Second World
War began, by an amateur film buff who managed to obtain a special
pass to shoot the event in close-up on colour 16-millimeter
Kodachrome. It was first shown only to the filmmaker's family,
after which it was hidden in the family cellar, where it lay for
many years before one of his sons retrieved it. English filmmakers
Luke Holland and Paul Yule filmed an audience of elderly Germans
watching themselves in the 1939 footage and reminiscing about their
experiences. Amongst them were sons of the unofficial cameraman and
the daughter of the publisher of Hitler's Mein Kampf, who in her
respect for Hitler's wish for 'privacy' on frequent visits to the
publisher's home never said 'Heil Mein Führer', but always 'Good
Morning Mr. Hitler'. The footage presents rarely-seen views of
Adolf Hitler, secure in his power, relaxed against the background
of a city in celebration. It also shows the Munich crowds, as
complicit participants, sharing with their leader the excitement of
the parade, rather than as an anonymous adoring masses, as usually
portrayed in Third Reich propaganda films. The original
16-millimeter colour footage was digitally transferred to master
videotape for the highest-quality VHS reproduction.
Synopsis:
Recently-discovered colour footage tells the story of an
extraordinary Munich weekend when Adolf Hitler and virtually the
entire Nazi leadership attended a three-day national cultural
festival, which included concerts, dancing, exhibitions and a
five-mile-long parade, titled '2,000 Years of German Culture'. The
film was shot in July 1939, just six weeks before the Second World
War began, by an amateur film buff who managed to obtain a special
pass to shoot the event in close-up on colour 16-millimeter
Kodachrome. It was first shown only to the filmmaker's family,
after which it was hidden in the family cellar, where it lay for
many years before one of his sons retrieved it. English filmmakers
Luke Holland and Paul Yule filmed an audience of elderly Germans
watching themselves in the 1939 footage and reminiscing about their
experiences. Amongst them were sons of the unofficial cameraman and
the daughter of the publisher of Hitler's Mein Kampf, who in her
respect for Hitler's wish for 'privacy' on frequent visits to the
publisher's home never said 'Heil Mein Führer', but always 'Good
Morning Mr. Hitler'. The footage presents rarely-seen views of
Adolf Hitler, secure in his power, relaxed against the background
of a city in celebration. It also shows the Munich crowds, as
complicit participants, sharing with their leader the excitement of
the parade, rather than as an anonymous adoring masses, as usually
portrayed in Third Reich propaganda films. The original
16-millimeter colour footage was digitally transferred to master
videotape for the highest-quality VHS reproduction.