Hasta La Motion!

WARNING: This video essay contains footage of graphic violence that may be disturbing to some viewers. Viewer discretion is advised. Many fiction features have used real footage to flesh out their story. Integrating archival footage into a fiction film can be a cheap solution to increase the production value of your film. But sometimes glossing over the difference between that real footage and the fictional images of the film cheapens the historic images. Especially when a film uses extremely violent archival footage. This video essay, commissioned by the International Film Festival Rotterdam, focuses on several films that incorporated real images of real violence. But these particular movies didn’t even attempt to seamlessly integrate that footage. Instead, these films are shaken to their very core by the archival violence: their narratives break down, their movement freezes. They are movies marked by an image. Please visit www.filmscalpel.com for detailed credits. This video was made solely for educational purposes and makes “fair use” of copyrighted material. Fair use is codified at Section 107 of the Copyright Act: Under the fair use doctrine, it is not an infringement to use the copyrighted works of another in some circumstances, such as for commentary, criticism, news reporting, or educational use.