This study analyzes the videotapes produced, duplicated, and circulated under the name of “Gwangju Video” throughout the 1980s in South Korea, situating them within transformations of media infrastructure and transnational networks, while exploring the aesthetic dimensions activated by found footage film and video bootlegging. It focuses on how Gwangju Videos were produced in multiple versions through bootlegging by different agents across distinct temporal contexts, and examines the reconfiguration of the video-centered media infrastructure in 1980s South Korea in relation to the military regime’s media policies. The study also outlines the formation of transnational networks through which Gwangju Videos circulated during the early 1980s. In particular, it reexamines media practices under the authoritarian regime not merely as objects of regulation and control, but as dynamic practices that unfolded within informal domains by circumventing state control. Focusing on May, When the Day Comes Again(1987), the most widely circulated Gwangju Video in South Korea, this study examines shifts in the visual field of the Gwangju Democratic Uprising during the transition to institutional democracy. Finally, by drawing on theories of found footage film and bootleg aesthetics, it analyzes the aesthetic and formal dimensions of Gwangju Videos to elucidate the affective capacity that underpinned their extensive circulation.