Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song

Made by her grandson, J. David Riva, the film makes use of hitherto unpublished material from Marlene’s private estate and includes a select cluster of interviews that shed new light on a fascinating and emotional story. For the first time, this film also places an emphasis on Dietrich’s political mission by looking at her motivation for leaving Hollywood for the European theatre of war and for devoting the greater part of her energy to the struggle against Hitler’s Germany.
Beginning with the heady climate of her birthplace, Berlin, during the twenties and thirties, we accompany the star through all her initial success in Germany and then on to Hollywood. In America she was to become someone to whom countless émigrés ran as a source of support; her contact with immigrants was to provide the impetus for her burgeoning political consciousness and later led to her tireless campaign to entertain American troops, year after year.