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.

Over the last 15 years, Deborah Stratman's (*1967) moving image works have gained increased recognition in the art world as well as the world of cinema. She has developed a unique documentary form which, though interested in the material reality of visible and audible surroundings, sees these as mirror images of an inner disposition. Natural landscapes and landscapes marked by civilization, traditional and pop-cultural rituals, and fragments of a history of cinema come together in a pointed documentary essayistic expression of the (mainly) American soul.