Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (film)

[1] In a meticulous experiment in rephotography, Jacobs deconstructs, manipulates, and recontextualizes a small fragment of found footage: a 1905 film showing a group of people chasing a thief through a barn, (shot and directed by G.W.

‘Billy’ Bitzer),[2] "rescued via a paper print filed for copyright purposes with the Library of Congress," according to Jacobs.

[3] Jacobs' refashioning of the footage is an essayistic meditation on the nature of cinematic representation; in the words of Chicago Reader critic Fred Camper, it is "a film about watching movies.

"[4] The film is considered a landmark in avant-garde and structural filmmaking, and remains Jacobs' best-known work.

[4] It was inducted to the National Film Registry in 2007, and is part of Anthology Film Archives' "Essential Cinema" repertory.