Mysteries in the Archives: 1937 Crash of the Hindenburg

200726 min 1 secFilm: Documentary

Direction: Serge Viallet

Production: Florence Fanelli

Co-produced by ARTE France and Institut national de l'audiovisuel with the participation of Centre National de la Cinématographie, in association with YLE Teema - Ritva Leino and RTSI-Televisione Svizzera, and with the participation of the National Film Board of Canada.

This title is an acquisition.

As night fell near in Lakehurst, New Jersey, near New York City, on May 6, 1937, the German dirigible the Hindenburg exploded. Four different newsreel company cameramen filmed one of the biggest scoops in the history of scoops. 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? 

All four scoops are deciphered and analyzed – as is the canny use of the new media for the American promotion of a dirigible brandishing the Nazi swastika. The Hindenburg had been forbidden to fly over England and France!

Subject categories


  • Transportation > Aeronautics and Aerospace
  • History > Historical PerpectivesWorld History

Credits


idea
Serge Viallet
Cédric Lépée
series director
Serge Viallet
director
Serge Viallet
editor
Alexandre Auque
assistant editor
Vanessa Bozza
editing intern
Thomas Fioretti
graphic design
Stéphanie Mée
historical research
Cedric Gruat
musical illustration
Niels Poux
credit sequence design
Philippe Truffault
credit sequence production
Philippe Truffault
credit sequence editor
François Labat
translator
Dana Burns Westberg
narrator
Dana Burns Westberg
documentalist
Michael Dolan
sound design
Laurent Thomas
Jean-François Gasnier
mix
Laurent Thomas
Jean-François Gasnier
colour correction
Rémi Berge
production manager
Thierry Ippolito
production assistant
Vincent Encontre
Armelle Jayet
commissioning editor
Elisabeth Hulten
administrator
Yasmine Boucherat
producer
Florence Fanelli