Hasta La Motion!

MARAMEOFILM and European Film College presents: “LZ 129 – A Zeppelin Odyssey” is a found footage documentary that explores the industrial power and magnificence of the German Zeppelin airship. The film is a portrait of the Zeppelin – from its construction, to flight, to its eventual demise in the Hindenburg disaster. LZ 129 evokes an emotional response from the viewer whereby underneath an aesthetic celebration of the Zeppelin as object, a darker correlation is made between the Zeppelin and the Nazi regime. The Zeppelin is treated as a living thing – from birth, to life and ultimately death. An innocent eye is placed onto the Zeppelin during its construction period, whereby the seemingly innocent relationship between the German people and the Nazi government is also called into question. The flight of the Zeppelin at the centre of the film conveys an ethereal moment of spectacle, a spectacle that is grimly shadowed by the presence of Nazi propaganda beneath the surface. The demise of the Zeppelin, most notoriously through the world famous event of the Hindenburg disaster, brings this correlation between Nazi rule and the Zeppelin to its apocalyptic conclusion. The film wishes to enact a feeling of complicity to spectacle and as a result, bring into question the political issue of spectacle as propaganda. The Zeppelin, removed from its context, becomes a creature that soars and invites awe as the audience become swayed by its aesthetic brilliance. But as we become aware of Hitler’s shadow beneath the image, we interrogate the danger of spectacle to avert the eye.