The Story of Film: An Odyssey

An epic 15 hour film about the history of innovation in the movies. Made over six years on four continents, covering eleven decades and a thousand films.

Epic... a global vision of cinema. Ian Christie, Sight and Sound

Audacious... a treat for movie lovers. Toronto Film Festival

A brilliant and monumental achievement. Roger Graef

A landmark in thinking and talking about cinema. Jonathan Coe

The Story of Film shows that innovation is at the heart of movie history. This series is about the pioneers, the people who really loved film, brought it alive and used it in new ways. The questions it asks are: who, at any time, were the most dynamic filmmakers on the planet? What sort of films were they making? How did they drive movies forward? Each section of the story is filmed in a different country, an atmospheric reminder that movies are about the real world.

Movies can't change the world or feed a nation but for over a century now people have flocked to films, to see their dreams, their fears, their sexuality and that of others on screen. The movies at the heart of this story have helped shape how we feel, love, look and hope.

Based on the internationally acclaimed best-seller The Story of Film by Mark Cousins

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and look out for the new website coming soon: www.thestoryoffilm.com

Written and directed by Mark Cousins

Producer: John Archer

Asylum (2011)

A co-production with the Bureau and Imagine Pictures, Asylum was made with the support of Creative Scotland and Film 4. It is currently beginning it’s festival life and has been selected for Hamburg, Grimstad and Edinburgh film festivals.

Asylum from Hopscotch Films on Vimeo.

Writer/Director: Joern Utkilen  

Producer: Carolynne Sinclair Kidd & Matthieu de Braconier

For news and updates on Asylum click news

Ruby (2011)

A comedy about a pharmacist who dreams of being an entrepreneur, RUBY was a 4 part series for Radio Scotland, broadcast in Spring 2011, and starring Mina Anwar and Julia Deakin.

Written by Sanjeev Kohli and Donald Mcleary

Produced by Carolynne Sinclair Kidd

No Sleep Till Yell (2011)

The Shetland Folk Festival is one of the world's most exotic events with a hard earned reputation as the festival where nobody sleeps.

Celebrating its 30th birthday, a hundred folk-musicians from as far afield as New York, Mumbai and Stockholm descend on the islands for four days and 200 performances, aided by 700 volunteers. With non-stop music from before the ferry leaves Aberdeen until the moment the visiting musicians return.

Directed: Brian Ross

Produced: John Archer

Films of Scotland (2010)

Greg Hemphill takes a sideways look at some remarkable documentary films. Between 1938 and 1982 over a hundred and fifty films were made to sell Scotland to the world and tell Scots themselves about their own country.

The first Films of Scotland were made for the 1938 Empire Exhibition. Rare colour film shows how magical the exhibition was for the children of depression-scarred Glasgow. The seven amazing films made especially for the exhibition showed audiences something they'd not seen before - real people in real places, from the remote Highlands to the shipyards of Dundee. As well as stunning extracts from these early films, we hear from people who remember the Empire Exhibition, and from a pupil featured in one of the original documentaries.

Directed and produced by Clara Glynn and John Archer