Hitler: A Career

Hitler: A Career (original title Hitler - Eine Karriere), co-directed by Joachim Fest and Christian Herrendoerfer, is a German documentary built entirely from archival footage, newsreels and propaganda films, based on Fest's bestselling 1973 biography of Hitler. The film had its world premiere as an out of competition special screening at the 1977 Berlin Film Festival, sparking major controversy. Heinz Galinski, then head of the Central Council of Jewish Communities, criticized the film for not sufficiently guarding against the propagandistic effect of its footage; director Wim Wenders criticized the filmmakers for reproducing "the aesthetics of fascism" by using footage almost entirely from the perpetrators' perspective; and American historian Deborah Lipstadt wrote that the film ignored the Holocaust entirely, glorifying a killer. Who it's for: anyone curious about a German documentary built almost entirely from archival footage, based on a historian's own bestselling book, that sparked major controversy at its premiere. Who it's not for: viewers wanting a documentary with a clear critical framework, since the film was criticized precisely for lacking one.