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Thank you. It's midsummer 1938 outside the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

40-year-old French filmmaker René Claire exits a yellow cap, slams the door shut behind him, and rushes toward the museum

because he's running late. Waiting inside is Renee's friend and fellow filmmaker, 49-year-old

Charlie Chaplin. Renée spots Chaplin across the lobby and waves. Together, they then hurry

down a hallway and reach MoMA's in-house movie theater.

An Usher recognizes them immediately, draws back the curtain and beckons them into the theater

without asking for tickets.

The room is already full because tonight, MoMA is screening a controversial film.

Lenny Riefenstalt's Triumph of the Will is her 1935 ode to the German

fascist dictator Adolf Hitler. It has already been banned in several countries, but the

MoMA film curator believes it should be studied, even if its message is toxic. René settles

into his seat as the lights dim. The audience then falls into silence, and the projector begins to roll.

On screen, Hitler struts before large crowds.

Soldiers march in unison and swastik assembles and blaze in every surface.

Renée sits rigid in his seat.

The spectacle terrifies him, and he feels sick at the sound of Hitler's rasping,

aggressive voice booming through the loudspeakers. Through the darkness, Renee glances at

his friend, and at first he doesn't believe what he's seeing. He thinks perhaps Chaplin is crying,

...