Harbord introduces how compilation editing, or reassembly of found film is a “potent force for adapting, reversing, and re-writing the meaning of any sequence of image and sound”. Harbord says that such tactical uses of editing have been marginalised due to an “Anglo-American culture”, namely that of the Hollywood studio system whose intentions were the opposite – to maintain the invisibility of the editor. To demonstrate the potential of compilation editing, Harbord refers to Joseph Cornell and his film Rose Hobart which he screen around galleries in New York in 1936. His work utilised one of Rose Hobart’s B-movie films and consisted mostly of various shots of her performing different action, gestures, nuances, sometimes revisiting the same scene but emphasising a different element. He included some “irrelevant” stock such as an eclipse, and match cuts of objects that look like the eclipse to blur the distinction between fact and fiction.

Harbord’s study reminds the reader of the possibilities editing can have in an artist sense as well as ethical sense, arguing that the compilation film can be a way to help audiences realise or experience the old in a new light. Her emphasis on this style of montage, which has been less discussed, makes her article particularly unique and helpful.