Controversial Torch Relay video withdrawn
The Globe and Mail
By Marsha Lederman, The Globe and Mail Posted Thursday, February 4,
2010 2:04 PM ET
 
 
VANOC is "retiring" its controversial promotional video for the
Olympic Torch Relay. As reported by the Globe and Mail Wednesday,
the video uses footage from the 1938 film Olympia, directed by Leni
Riefenstahl, who made propaganda films for Adolf Hitler, including
Triumph of the Will. Olympia documents the 1936 Berlin Olympics,
hosted by Nazi Germany.
 
"We are retiring the ... video to focus on the highlight videos that
show the tremendous excitement generated by the Torch Relay as it
has made its way across the country," reads a prepared statement by
VANOC. The "highlight videos" referred to in the statement have been
made as the torch has travelled across the country.
 
Historians and the Jewish community were surprised and upset by the
use of the Olympia footage by VANOC, which included a shot of a
torchbearer entering the stadium in Berlin. In Ms. Riefenstahl's
original film, spectators are seen performing the Nazi salute. In
the VANOC video, the saluting crowd is obscured by a black frame, a
decision VANOC defended in a prepared statement by saying they did
so "in order to respect the relay's history while not highlighting
the political environment of the day."
 

Marsha Lederman, The Globe and Mail