Found Footage Films

Found Footage Films examines the rich aesthetic history of cinematic remixes, from pioneering films by Joseph Cornell and Bruce Conner to contemporary mashups and memes.

We live in the era of the remix. Visual artists rework images from popular culture, music producers sample and loop elements from classic songs, and content creators transform images from films and television shows into viral memes. We are swimming in a sea of appropriated sounds and images. But how did we get here? It is impossible to answer this question without considering the crucial role played by found footage films.

This book argues that found footage films complicate widespread assumptions about originality, creativity, and authorship. It argues that the philosophical and aesthetic foundations of cinematic appropriation were provided by Marcel Duchamp and suggests that many scholars have thus far given insufficient attention to the sounds of found footage films—and their powerful role in shaping a spectator’s interpretation of the reworked material.