Various Thoughts

The number homeless people in the United States can vary greatly at any single point in time. The vast majority of homeless Americans are only homeless for a short period of time; and usually it is due to very specific circumstances, after a natural disaster for example, or a long period without work after a job loss, a death in the family, things like that.

Using the current flooding problems as a current example, there will be a short term influx of homeless people in the United States without a doubt, but the vast majority of those people will have a home again very soon.

The real issue is all of the people that are homeless and have been homeless for a very long time now. These people are not going to find a home any time soon. The majority of them suffer from mental health issues, often times very severe mental health issues, or they have substance abuse problems; and the help available to them is vastly inadequate for how extensive the issue is.

Another part of the equation that needs to be taken into account is the fact that the amount of homeless veterans is hugely out of balance with the percentage of American veterans as a whole of the population. It clearly shows that veterans are not receiving the level of treatment that they deserve here in the United States. Our veterans need and deserve proper care, no matter what their problem is.

I have currently estimated the amount of actual homeless people in the United States at over .0333% of the population, over one hundred thousand of our fellow Americans. As I said above, the number of homeless people in the United States varies greatly at any point in time; but what I am concerned with here are real homeless people that have very little chance of getting out of their homelessness.

Real homeless people are what we need to focus on. Over one hundred thousand Americans: Men, women and children, usually with extreme mental or substance abuse problems, problems that they have little hope in overcoming, problems that they have little support for.

Leni Riefenstahl's next cinematic work was very likely made specifically for Adolf Hitler himself. The film was financed by Hitler through the German government; it is a film version of Adolf Hitler's favorite opera: Tiefland by Eugen d'Albert.

Based on the great Catalan writer Àngel Guimerà's 1896 play Terra baixa; Eugen d'Albert's Tiefland was his seventh and most famous Opera; though not immediately popular, the opera would garner international acclaim shortly after it was reworked by d'Albert in 1907.

Tiefland would be Leni Riefenstahl's last full length feature film. Once again she would direct, write, star, edit, and produce the film. I've seen the film and it is a very high quality work, it's a very artistic film and I feel that Leni Riefenstahl's vision is well supported, especially taking into consideration that the film was created during such a hectic time in her life, and of course a very hectic time for the entire world.

While Tiefland is not quite as much of a breakthrough as Leni Riefenstahl's great work done in Triumph of the Will and Olympia; Tiefland is full of extremely high quality, beautiful shots, and I believe it to be a fine film overall.

The one draining issue with Tiefland is that some of the actors were taken out of concentration camps and put to work on the film. Both Sinti and Roma gypsies were taken from concentration camps nearby wherever the shooting location was at the time.

It's said that the actors in the film were later put to death at some point after returning to the concentration camps. Whether that is true is unknown to me, but it seems that it was likely unknown to Leni Riefenstahl if it were true, as she denied anything like that ever happening. Regardless of the fact that many of the actors in the film were gypsies, or whether they were being forced into doing the work or not, or whether they were killed by the Nazi's at some point after the filming was finished; we have to realize that it was a terrible situation for them, as well as many other people during World War II, but it is a fact of Germany from that period in time, one that we have to accept and deal with.

It's unknown to me how Leni Riefenstahl treated her actors, but I can't see it as having been too bad, certainly not as bad as what was happening to them inside of their concentration camps; taking into account the fact that she was acting right there along with them. Who can say how they were treated while in her presence and working with her though.

Leni Riefenstahl's next film was another work for Hitler and the Nazi party, filmed and released the same year that Triumph of the Will was released, 1935. It is another documentary / propaganda piece filmed at the annual Nazi rally held in Nuremburg, entitled Tag der Freiheit! -- Unsere Wehrmacht! (Day of Freedom! -- Our Armed Forces!). It's a short film glorifying the German army. It is not quite up to the artistic merits of her previous works, especially Triumph of the Will, but it is a quality work for what it is; basically it's a showcase of the German army and how they operate.

The film was created due to the German army's lack of exposure in the brilliant Triumph of the Will. As such they were upset and wanted a film of their own, they went to Hitler with their concerns and Hitler accepted their idea and put it through to Riefenstahl.

Sadly the 1935 Nazi party rally in Nuremburg was the point in which the Nazi ideologies on the Jewish people would begin to further come to light and be implemented. Known as the Nuremberg Laws, they are one of the first of many black marks on the history of Leni Riefenstahl and her work, Adolf Hitler, the Nazi party, and much of the German population. The Nuremberg Laws were of course some of the first official discrimination laws against the Jewish people by the Nazi party.

Riefenstahl's next film was Olympia, in which she brilliantly documents the 1936 Summer Olympics. It is Leni Riefenstahl's last groundbreaking work in film (though not her last film). It is another masterwork, along with Triumph of the Will, Olympia is her greatest work in film; I can't quite say for sure which one I enjoy more or which was more of a breakthrough, both are cinematic masterpieces.

Olympia is a truly brilliant work. Known for its technical achievements, Leni uses advanced techniques in the process of creating the film, such as; tracking shots, everyone is aware of tracking shots today, but they certainly weren't as aware of them before Leni Riefenstahl; extreme close-ups, everyone knows what an extreme close-up is now, but very few knew what it was in 1936; smash-cut editing, which is now commonly used to give the viewer a quick snap, a wakeup call if you will, they weren't happening before Olympia; as well as cleverly angled and designed shots and lighting techniques; slow-motion techniques; and much more. The film showcases her absolute brilliance as a director in film and as an artist in general.

Before Olympia the vast majority of shots in cinema were done from stationary positions, little camera movement was involved and little variation on top of that. Certainly there were plenty of other great filmmakers both before and during the time of Leni Riefenstahl's classic directing works and I do not mean to discredit them at all. But the fact is that Leni Riefenstahl truly was a great artist and a cinematic visionary; Leni Riefenstahl was a pioneer and she should be seen and respected as such.