Found footage filmmaking is a practice involving reappropriating and remixing previously shot or created materials for new, innovative purposes. Filmmakers working in this tradition utilize many different methods of transforming moving images—from physically manipulating motion-picture film to juxtaposing disparate content through clever editing to glitching digital video and video game software—to critically examine its original meaning, context, and cultural significance.

There is a peculiar correlation between so-called found footage filmmaking, founded on the reuse of pre-existing film footage, and the idea of "preserving" film heritage that drives the work of film museums and film archives. Unlike other forms of filmmaking which sprang to life "on their own" and were then preserved by film archives, found footage as a filmmaking tradition appeared only after film archives had gathered enough material to make artists curious about it.