SHE HELPED CREATE NAZI GERMANY'S DEADLIEST PROPAGANDA. THEN SHE HELPED DESTROY THE REGIME THAT MADE IT.

From Hollywood dreams to Nazi nightmares—the truth Sally Faulkner kept buried from the world for decades. Dancing in the Darkness tells the shocking story of an ambitious American filmmaker whose pursuit of stardom led her from 1930s Hollywood to the heart of the Nazi propaganda empire. Her journey reveals one of the most extraordinary- and morally complex- untold stories of World War II.

A chance meeting with legendary director Leni Riefenstahl changes Sally's life forever.

Swept from the sets of Gone with the Wind to Berlin's Babelsberg Studios, Sally finds herself entangled in Joseph Goebbel’s brutal propaganda machine, working alongside infamous filmmaker Veit Harlan and his wife and leading actress Kristina Söderbaum. From documenting the invasion of Poland to filming inside the Lodz ghetto, Sally’s ambition blinds her to the horror around her- until the premiere of Jud Süss, the vicious anti-Semitic film she helped produce, brings devastating moral reckoning

But this is only the start of Sally's story.

When Sally rejects Goebbels' advances, he has her thrown into Berlin’s infamous Plötzensee Prison. Against all odds, she escapes the Third Reich with her life—and a vow for redemption. Returning to America, Sally fights to rebuild her shattered career, creating Allied propaganda films with Frank Capra, preparing evidence for the Nuremberg Trials, whilst confronting the gravity of her complicity in one of history's greatest evils.

Raw, honest, and unforgettable—a memoir of eyewitness testimony, personal confession and moral reckoning.

Discovered after her death, Sally's unflinching account explores how ordinary people become complicit in extraordinary evil- and whether redemption is truly possible. A powerful story of ambition, complicity, love and guilt.

Perfect for fans of Heather Morris, Kate Quinn and Anthony Doerr.

Sally Faulkner (nee von Falkenhayn) was born 14 June 1918 in Sankt Goar, Germany. Raised in Hollywood by emigre parents, young Sally dreamed of becoming a film director, graduated from the film school at USC, and landed a job as script girl for George Cukor on Gone with the Wind. In 1939, a job offer from Leni Riefenstahl brought Sally to Berlin, where she worked on films under Nazi director Veit Harlan. As World War Two began, Sally returned to the USA to work on morale films for the Army under director Frank Capra. A chance meeting with Budd Schulberg took Sally to Nuremberg to create filmed evidence for the prosecution at the war crimes trial. In August 1948, Sally was awarded the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal by the Department of Defense for her Nuremberg work, the highest honor for a civilian working for the DoD. After a long and distinguished career as a documentarian and educator, Sally died at The Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills on 11 June 2019, a few days before her 101st birthday.