Mark Cousins’ new 16-hour epic tracks the journey of non-fiction cinema from the end of the 19th century to modern day. Told in sixteen chapters and covering thirteen decades, Mark Cousins showcases documentaries from all corners of the world in a quest to uncover how our world is moulded by and reflected in documentary film.
The first chapter had its premiere at Sundance Film Festival and the following three chapters premiered at Berlin International Film Festival.
Listen below to Mark in conversation with John Ridley and Matt Carey at Doc Talk podcast. Starting at 34 minutes in.
““I think documentaries have become more and more important as the news media has shrunk into a sound-byte world“ - Mark Cousins in an interview with Scott Iwasaki, Park Records
“If the first episode of this limpid and essayistic series is any indication, the rest of ‘The Story of Documentary Film’ will be deeply, painstakingly journalistic in intent but lovingly poetic in its delivery“ - Chris Barsanti
“Cousins is more concerned with the content and politics of the films than with their technological aspects. […] But his emphatic focus on the power structures behind documentaries and who gets to make them, and his repeated insistence that documentaries not only capture the world but help to create it, are not simply subjective preferences, but are also clear signs of our times – and ones with which I strongly agree.” - Kees Driessen
“The latest series from Mark Cousins (The Story of Film: An Odyssey) takes viewers on a thoughtful journey through 140 years of nonfiction cinema, and while I only received access to the first episode of the 16-hour film, that was enough to remind me of the significance and artistry that documentary is capable of. Nothing else I was seeing in my first batch of Sundance documentary screeners seemed to matter in comparison or excite me on the same level. “ - Christopher Campbell. Read Christopher’s conversation with Mark Cousins here.
