Footage found on the internet tells a frightening story in Fraud. Filmmaker Dean Fleischer-Camp found over 100 hours of footage on YouTube of a man and his family. The footage was edited together to tell a story with some surprising twists an turns.
The best way to describe Fraud is that it is a found footage editing exercise. The film features so many cuts that it is almost dizzying to watch. There is practically zero context given for the footage shown and the film is book-ended by simple title against a black background.
If Fraud truly is made from found footage, it can be hard to believe that the events depicted in the footage happened exactly as they are seen. In fact, it could probably be argued that the film is constructing its story from the hours of footage the director found online. It’s an interesting use of editing, but probably not the most compelling film.
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