Culture

ContainR at Vancouver 2010 Olympics to Show Parts of Olympia

by Amy Judd | February 9, 2010 at 09:17 pm

442 views | 38 Recommendations | 6 comments

ContainR is an art and film project that is going to be showcasing their work at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games at the downtown Vancouver Shaw Tower site.

ContainR is going to be screening 38 films from all aroundthe world, including five that were made especially for their project.

One of the films to be screened, is part of Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia, the 1936 film that has become controversial due to its political nature. Leni Riefenstahl also made the Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will.

The sequence to be shown at ContainR, is the final diving sequence, showing athletes diving gracefully in to the water from a high diving board.

The festival program includes ‘Snow’ by master filmmaker David Hinton, one of the creators behind DV8’s films, juxtaposed with historical pieces, including the diving sequence from Leni Riefenstahl’s ‘Olympia’ – the controversial 1936 Nazi film

Interestingly, VANOC had used images from Leni Riefenstahl's Olymipa in a film called Lights Will Guide You Home, showing footage of great moments in Canadian Winter Olymipcs and some torch-relay footage.

However, the footage that VANOC used was one of a runner entering a stadium during the 1936 Olympics with people performing the Nazi salute behind him. VANOC had obscured the frame so that the salute wasn't shown, but the Canadian Jewish Congress and historians had called for those images to be dropped.

VANOC did say that they had stopped showing the video to those who were running with the Olympic torch, although it still has been shown a few times since then.

ContainR shows a different part of the film, but they want to look at the line between art and sport and where it stands. They showcase their work in reconditioned shipping containers and they will be in downtown Vancouver for the entire duration of the Olymipc Games.

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Uwe Paschen

at 01:08 on February 10th, 2010

The images are part of human history and have to been seen and used, so we may remember and that it may never happen again.

However, it is of great importance that we stay with the facts and that we do not glorify nor demonise those.

Sputnic

at 03:00 on February 10th, 2010

Sport is glorious, if you put these two together it is, to a degree, glorifying the Nazis. It is very important to remember Paschen, I agree. That is the main purpose of museums.

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 03:37 on February 10th, 2010

Yep I say get the NAZIs out of it. We have enough other reminders of that period.

Uwe Paschen

at 06:16 on February 10th, 2010

We use sports today in the same manner then the NAZI did. One of the picks was in the cold war era. Another the Begin Olympics or the Los Angeles Olympics, and still today it is a big propaganda machine.

I think we have learned very little and the images are a good reminder of that.