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What innovative filmmaking technique was used in Zelig?

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Woody Allen speaking into a microphone with hands raised beside his face during a press conference, against a red background. — Woody Allen American director Woody Allen attending a press conference for *Café Society* before the opening of the 69th Cannes film festival, 2016.

In the 1983 film Zelig, Woody Allen utilized the innovative technique of incorporating actual period film footage as a backdrop for his narrative. Allen and his film editor, Susan E. Morse, painstakingly altered this historical footage to integrate the protagonist, Leonard Zelig—a "human chameleon"—into various critical historical events of the 1920s, such as scenes featuring Adolf Hitler and Babe Ruth. This groundbreaking approach served as a foundational element for the film's style as a faux documentary.12