Creative considerations

As soon as archival materials existed, there were fi lmmakers waiting to make innovative use of them. In the 1920s, for example, editors such as Esther Shub, working in Soviet kinofabriki (“fi lm factories”) created compilation documentaries out of reality footage, often in tribute to a recent historic event or celebrated individual. There is a direct line from this early employment of archival materials to today’s diverse uses, from feature fi lms to mashups, from museum installations to self-referential postmodern statements.