Historical found footage is often used in documentary films as a source of primary information, giving the viewer a more comprehensive understanding of the subject matter.
Baseball (1994), his documentary television series for PBS, incorporates historical footage accompanied by original music or actors reading relevant written documents.
In the dramatized and embellished pseudo-documentary film F for Fake (1973), director Orson Welles borrows all shots of main subject Elmyr de Hory from a BBC documentary,[1] rather than fabricating the footage himself.
Stuart Cooper's Overlord uses stock footage of the landing on Normandy during World War II to increase realism.
The forefather of found footage music videos was artist Bruce Conner who screened Cosmic Ray in 1961.