Wolf Gruner to Speak on Panel About “Triumph of the Will” at USC School of Cinematic Arts

Leni Riefenstahl on the set of Triumph of the Will (1935)

USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research Director Wolf Gruner will speak on a panel about the seminal Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will at a screening of the film at USC School of Cinematic Arts on Thursday, Jan. 19 at 7 p.m.

The event is cohosted by Seeking Our Story, Women in Media and USC School of Cinematic Arts. A networking event at 6 p.m. will precede the panel discussion at 7 p.m., followed by the screening of the film in 16mm.

Triumph of the Will was written, directed, produced and edited by Leni Riefenstahl. Adolf Hitler commissioned her in 1935 to create a film “which would move, appeal to, impress an audience which was not necessarily interested in politics,” according to Riefenstahl. It relies on visual repetition, emotional appeals, and huge staged rallies to portray the rise of Nazi Germany.

On the panel, Gruner will be joined by Michael Renov, Haskell Wexler Endowed Chair in Documentary, Professor of Cinema & Media Studies and Vice Dean for Academic Affairs at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and Steven Ross, Professor of History and Director of the Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life. The scholars will discuss the history of the film and its impact on World War II and modern media.