A Research Site Devoted to the Past and Future of Found Footage Film and Video


"The Literary and Artistic heritage of humanity should be used for partisan propaganda purposes." - Gil J. Wolman

“A lot of people who call themselves artists now are cultural critics who are using instruments other than just written language or spoken language to communicate their critical perspective.”
-Leslie Thornton

Friday, January 4, 2008

Harun Farocki and the Politics of Found Footage with William Burroughs on Cut-Ups

Harun Farocki has used found footage in innovative ways throughout his career challenging dominant political perspectives with a simple common sense approach to the world. His films are sometimes almost untouched appropriations and others deeply nuanced assemblages that find incredible connections between disparate source materials. He is a humane, empathetic and serious found footage filmmaker who unlike his colleagues has created uncynical films that speak truth to power without being self-righteous. I highly recommend his films Interview, How to Live in the German Federal Republic , Still Life, Videograms of a Revolution, and War at a distance. Below are clips from some films.









A clip from a documentary on William Burroughs explaining the Cut-Up Method:


Here is a Cut-Up Film by Burroughs:


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