Mora found out the two 30-minute films while searching Berlin’s Federal Archives sources for material for his upcoming documentary film How the Third Reich was Recorded. This one is detailing how the Third Reich used images to build their own reality and control the masses.
The first of the films, entitled So Real You Can Touch It, features close-up shots of sizzling sausages on a barbeque. The second film, entitled Six Girls Roll into Weekend, features what is thought to be two celebrities from the Universum Film Studio, the major German film studio during WW2.
The quality of the films is fantastic. The Nazis were obsessed with recording everything and every single image was controlled — it was all part of how they gained control of the country and its people,”
Mora said, and furthermore:
They were made by an independent studio for Goebbels’ propaganda ministry and referred to as ‘raum film’ — or ‘space film’ — which may be why no one ever realized since that they were 3D.”
Philippe Mora considers that his finding films, both shot on 35mm and obviously achieved by placing a prism in front of two lenses, confirms that the Nazis’ use of the now trendy 3D was decades in front of contemporary filmmakers.
This isn’t the first time Mora’s discovered fascinating Nazi film materials. His documentary Swastika, released in 1973, featured formerly unseen color film footage from Hitler’s home movies shot by Eva Braun at his Obersalzberg retreat. Those scenes now turn up in almost every documentary about the Third Reich…
Mora is assured there is more unseen 3D footage in Berlin’s Federal Archives yet to be found.
What I find intriguing is the Nazis’ pioneering use of television, a subject for which you can see a remarkable documentary. Really changes the perception one has of the Third Reich.