Fair Use and Free Speech
Examples of Successful Fair Use in Documentary Film

Filmmakers have been successfully employing fair use, even before the Statement of Best Practices clarified their common understandings. Here are some examples of uncontested choices for fair use. They are organized here according to the principles that filmmakers articulated in the Statement, in the categories used in the Statement. These categories are only four of the most common situations for filmmakers; some uses could be hybrid, and others might fall outside these four categories. We welcome more examples at socialmedia@american.edu.

Category 1:

Commenting Critically on Media

Category 2:

Sampling popular culture to portray societal conditions

Category 3:

Incorporating incidental sounds and images in documentary footage

Category 4:

Employing archival material in historical or biographical sequences