Stream These Documentaries on the Winter Olympics Going Back a Century

Since 1912 the International Olympic Committee has commissioned an official documentary for nearly every edition of the Games, creating a compact archive that is especially valuable from the era before television. In celebration of the Milan Cortina Winter Games, those films can be streamed on the free Olympics website or watched on the Criterion Channel.

There are occasional gaps in the record. The I.O.C. did not commission a film for the 1936 Summer Games because the Nazi regime hired Leni Riefenstahl to make Olympia, a work that introduced revolutionary techniques while also serving as overt propaganda. Most of the official films, by contrast, are strikingly cinematic and consistently advance the I.O.C.’s positive message that the Games bring people together and promote peace.

Two examples from past Winter Games show how different the approaches can be.

Italy, Milan Cortina

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