Riefenstahl was without doubt the mother of Nazi imagery, motifs and aesthetic cinematography. The documentary Triumph of the Will was truly an epic cinema depicting the heroism and patriotic pride, strength and conviction associated with the powerful Nazi regime in Germany. She sets the trend for using imagery to narrate tales of hardship and oppression. A few striking examples that have been influenced by her style of documentary cinema include the Black Pride salute in the 1968 Olympic Games or the Unknown Rebel in Tiananmen Square, 1989. She was the first woman to revolutionize documentary filmmaking adopting unique cinematic techniques that attracted a sense of respect and adulation from the audience. She truly redefined the landscape of documentary filmmaking by introducing aerial photography making her contribution to documentary cinema remarkable.

Her style of capturing each shot was unique and in the film she has been able to show imagery that has never been seen before such as vast landscapes and military formations. The emblem of swastika or Hitler’s token of freedom, the rifle, hand gesture with minimal use of dialogues comprise a powerful essence that even words couldn’t have described.

In the film, Riefenstahl’s has painted Germany as a resurrecting nation during economic depression and war. This film is a testimony of Riefenstahl’s ability to control the audience with images, exemplary oratory skills of Hitler exhibited by his speeches and footage featuring marching infantry, saluting workmen, and state mobilization.

In the movie Triumph, Riefenstahl has portrayed the spirited side of the Nazi military camps displaying a mix of duty and fun and perks of joining the camp. The film is characteristic of the relationship between soldiers displayed through football playing scenes and youth play that strikes a chord with the audience. The scenes are presented in a very methodical, alert, and constructive way so much that the narration almost dims the effect created by German flags waving in the backdrop and children shoving and wrestling to get noticed in the crowd, the grim buildings or statues, the wails of valedictory of the soldiers. By providing a warm and well poised she is able to temper the tyrannous acts of Nazi Government without stymieing it. It’s a warm proximity between mass assembly and pensive calm.

The film succeeds in covering up all the heinous crimes by Hitler, and validates the German dictator’s fan following in his country. Through the employment of sharp camera techniques, aesthetics, Riefenstahl is able to portray the greatness of Hitler’s visit to Nuremberg to attend the Nazi Party Congress, I say this, because she succeeds in making Hitler not only handsome, but someone who looks to be in charge of his people. The representation of Hitler in Triumph of Will is a reverse of Hitler’s real public image in the civilized world making Riefenstahl a mere pin up girl of the fascist Nazi army and their narcissist ideology. This revolutionary attempt of documenting the political aspects of the Nazi party was demobilized as a politically motivated propaganda and it didn’t work for her career as it was pro Nazism.

Robert Flaherty and John Grierson both were pioneers of documentary movies and lend immense credibility to the root of the documentary filmmaking. Though both are equally important in the documentary cinema landscape, Flaherty is known as the first “father of documentary.” In the classic documentary “Nanook of the North,” the producer of the film Flaherty has attempted to showcase the struggles of an Intuit hunter, Nanook braving the brutal cold conditions at the Hudson Bay region in Canada. In the travelogue he captures the intimacy and communication between the people of the primitive culture in Canada and their indigenous life, and work of the native transcending the picturesque journey to fill a realistic image of the details of the lives and challenges of people thriving in parts of the cold frontier. The film appealed to the audience in Hollywood strongly as it was a source of entertainment and provided them with eye catching images representing the process of human involvement and the natural things of their daily lives. While Grierson applauded the work of Flaherty and acknowledged him as the father of documentary cinema, his approach and style of presenting social and political issues was more dramatized but in a meaningful way. The idea was to showcase situations that are based on the roles of communication and its patterns in modern society.

In “Night Mail,” John Grierson aimed at bringing forth to the audiences’ eye from all parts of the earth to the story, his own story, of what was happening under his nose…the drama of the door-step.” While Flaherty’s representation of the primitive age characters and their way of life in the documentary was more light-hearted, Grierson delved into serious social issues of the modern society. Flaherty often portrayed close-ups of a group of people far from an ancient era in an amusing, and playful manner using staged scenes. He has exhibited a similar approach in the Nanook of the North in 1922 which has no voiceover, but permits the audience to go on an exploration of the intuit culture and its primitive yet human habits in an entertaining way. The movie received unparalleled recognition and some amount of criticism from modern and realistic cinema producers such as Grierson who slammed it for being regressive, fictional and an exaggeration of the truth. If Griersom would have produced the movie Nanook it would have outlined the social issues. This representation would make the documentary more political in the context of modern society rather than focusing on an earlier period.

In “Night Mail,” Grierson depicts the true account of the life process and difficulties of postal service working class chronicled at the time of the Great Depression in Britain. The movie is more issue oriented and less impersonal about its characters that focusses on generating a mass awakening to deal with social and economic problems during the Great Depression through their skills. Flaherty ignored the social aspect of a culture and the socio-political context of the struggles of its protagonist. His style of filmmaking in Nanook was in capturing the beauty, essence, personal account of kinship of an ancient world. John Grierson on the other hand changed the spectrum of documentary cinema by aiming to address contemporary issues with a more realistic and non-fictional approach rather than making films for pleasure which is Flaherty’s style and genre.

Both filmmakers have contributed significantly to a realistic representation of two different cultures in time and have shown techniques and examples of creating a balance between realism and social issues and a touch of joy and intimacy among people and cultures in documentary films today. Both films however depict realistic inner workings of both the societies for audiences to view. In “Night Mail,” the scenes like the bags of mail exiting and entering the trains, Grierson highlights the details of the postal service.  In a similar fashion, Flaherty’s scenes gives realistic insights into prehistoric Arctic culture and lifestyle such as igloo construction, hunting, fishing, etc.

I feel that filmmakers today can contribute aspects of both Grierson and Flaherty’s techniques to teach the audience about a social issue while also capturing a personal account and intimate culture of the scene. Grierson and Flaherty have contributed an important balance of aspects to filmmaking in which modern day artists still use today.

The documentary movie by Robert Flaherty, Nanook of the North was the first full length anthropological account in cinematographic history that received wide recognition for its outstanding ideas that remain nearly incomparable for filmmakers even today to execute them. It was innovative in the sense that it brought to light the details of an unknown primitive culture, the struggles of an Eskimo Nanook and his family braving the brutal cold conditions at the Hudson Bay region in Canada for his survival that Western audiences weren’t much aware of and that charm them thoroughly. The daily acts of trading, hunting and fishing of the inhabitants barely touched by modern age technology. The exotic examples such as the reference to “happy-go-lucky Eskimos,” staged walrus and seal hunts, and the encounter with the gramophone, were all an attempts to preserve the fleeting traditions of the life of the people in the Arctic in the hearts of the contemporary world. As a harbinger of depiction of an alien, mysterious civilization it was unique as compared to other movies of the same genre and age. It underscored a primitive period in history and the subject of the native life, and work of the native transcending the picturesque journey to change a realistic image of the details of the lives and challenges of people thriving in parts of the cold frontier depicted in the documentary was based on the prevailing situation that intrigues audiences. The treatment of the movie was based on realism and was portrayed with honesty. At the crux of the documentary are the two themes that captivate the audience even today namely- the representation of the process of human involvement and the duration of executing things inherent to the daily lives of these people such as fuel generated by burning moss, shielding their kayaks, negotiating ice floes, hunting animals, and rearing their children. For instance the portrayal of the remarkable intriguing igloo building scene that reveal the fruit of human labor and team effort. It also sheds light on the exemplary dexterity of Nanook and is a cinematic treat of surreal beauty and spirituality. The classic images of the inside of the igloo in the film were actually shot in a special three-walled igloo for Flaherty’s bulky camera so that there would be enough light for it to capture interior shots. The creation of shelter, followed by warmth and light streaming through the window all depict the power, skills, and artistry of humans who despite the unfavorable condition and odd are able to create unparalleled buildings and structures for survival.