Arte - Mysteries in the Archives Series 1 (2009) Part 4 1937 Crash of the Hindenburg

Mysteries in the archives, ten investigations into ten events of the twentieth century that have marked our memory and our imagination. What do the archival images tell us? What are their origins, their hidden meaning? The documentary collection “Mysteries in the Archives”, directed by Serge Viallet, airs in Arte to satisfy our curiosity. Ten unpublished surveys reveal the secrets of audiovisual archives. “Images tell stories, we tell the story of images.” Viallet examines films that are often forgotten or ignored, shot during historical events Marilyn Monroe's tour of Korea in 1954, the American atomic tests at Bikini in 1946, the crossing of the Atlantic by aviator Charles Lindbergh in 1927, the entry of General de Gaulle into Paris in 1944, the funeral of John F. Kennedy in 1963 … All of them fulfill a decisive function in the great evolutionary narrative of the television epic. Viallet skips over and over again the sequences, zooms in on details, explains the meaning of this or that object, draws the eye to what to see behind the facade. By highlighting the deceptions, staging and editing, these documentaries are also an opportunity to review technical means and their evolution. Mysteries in the archives is a collection aiming to uncover and rediscover known or unpublished images that bear witness to our history. The audiovisual document becomes a piece of evidence that it is up to us to question, to make people talk. The image is scrutinized, dissected, and often, Mysteries in the archives takes our gaze away from what the camera operator had seen or expected. Each episode is constructed as an investigation. Some are about cheerful and amusing topics, others are about more solemn, momentous events. Serge Viallet, a true detective of the image, reveals a multitude of new elements and significant anecdotes hidden behind the story as it was shown to us in cinemas and then on television. Meticulous investigations are undertaken - film is rummaged, sifted through and sorted, examined frame by frame and analyzed until it finally reveals its secrets. This collection includes all 10 episodes of season 1.

Part 4 1937 Crash of the Hindenburg

A behind-the-scenes look at one of the biggest scoops in the history of scoops. May 6, 1937. Four newsreel company cameramen await the arrival of the celebrated Hindenburg in Lakehurst, New Jersey outside New York City. During the final approach as night falls, the 110-metre German dirigible explodes in front of their eyes – and their cameras. All four scoops are deciphered and analyzed – as the canny use of the new media for the American promotion of a dirigible brandishing the Nazi swastika. Was it an accident or a terrorist attack? We'll never know, but what were four cameramen doing in Lakehurst as night took away the light, and rain fell? Why were these four cameramen there? What became of their respective scoops? The Hindenburg had been forbidden to fly over England and France. Why had those countries prohibited the Hindenburg's passage over their territory while the Americans welcomed the dirigible?

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