Mark Cousins

A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things (2024)

One of the most important women in British modern art, the painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was a highly inspirational figure, whose work was deeply impacted by a pivotal event in her life. In May 1949, this leading representative of the modernist St Ives g ...

Cinema Has Been My True Love: The Work and Times of Lynda Myles (2023)

In Mark Cousins' meditative documentary, Lynda Myles, an influential connoisseur of cinema, reflects on her adventures in the film culture she helped establish. From 1973 to 1980, as the first female director of any festival, Myles transformed the Edinburg ...

The Complete Story of Film (2023)

At 18 hours and 43 minutes long, 'The Complete Story of Film' collects two epic documentaries by Mark Cousins into a stunningly expansive global journey through film history from the birth of cinema to today. The Story of Film: An Odyssey is an inclusive a ...

My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock (2023)

Directed by Mark Cousins, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock re-examines the vast filmography and legacy of one of the 20th century's greatest filmmakers, Alfred Hitchcock, through a new lens: through the auteur's own voice. ...

The March on Rome (2022)

The fascinating story of the rise to power of dictator Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) in Italy in 1922 and how fascism marked the fate of the entire world in the dark years to come. ...

The Ballad of a Great Disordered Heart (2022)

A collaborative film by Aidan O'Rourke, Becky Manson and Mark Cousins. A musical melange of fiddles, friendship and a search for home. An evocative film about Edinburgh's Old Town and the communities who have called it home. During lockdown, musician Aid ...

The Story of Film: A New Generation (2021)

The final chapter of his exceptional 15-part documentary exploring the history of cinema, The Story of Film: An Odyssey. Mark Cousins builds a bridge between the "before" of the health crisis, and the "after". ...

The Storms of Jeremy Thomas (2021)

Joining Oscar-winning producer Jeremy Thomas on his annual pilgrimage to the Cannes Film Festival, filmmaker Mark Cousins gives an intimate glimpse into the life of the legendary icon behind some of the most controversial and acclaimed films of all time. ...

The Story of Looking (2021)

As he prepares for surgery to restore his vision, Mark Cousins explores the role that visual experience plays in our individual and collective lives. In a deeply personal meditation on the power of looking in his own life, he guides us through the riches o ...

Dear Paul Schrader, Thank You for Light Sleeper (2021)

A personal meditation on Schrader's film from the critic and filmmaker Mark Cousins. ...

40 Days to Learn Film (2020)

For just forty days, filmmaker and writer Mark Cousins embarks on a peculiar journey in order to explore topics as the passion for cinema and certain aspects related to making films as style, ideas, emotions and practicalities; an ambitious exploration of ...

Alexander's Film (2020)

Alexander is a lively Scottish boy. We see him as part of the natural world. Then, we hear from his parents, Claire and David, that he has a rare neurodegenerative disease. An innovative documentary with joy and sorrow. ...

The Eyes of Orson Welles (2018)

A poetic journey into the visual world of the legendary filmmaker and actor Orson Welles (1915-85) that reveals a new portrait of a unique genius, both of his life and of his monumental work: through his own eyes, drawn by his own hand, painted with his ow ...

Storm in My Heart (2018)

Despite the many curious similarities between Susan Hayward and Lena Horne-both were born in Brooklyn on exactly the same day, for example-one detail set their careers on very different paths. This doc examines their parallel lives. ...

Stockholm, My Love (2016)

Stockholm My Love is a city symphony, a love letter to Stockholm, the fiction debut of director Mark Cousins and the acting debut of musician Neneh Cherry. It follows one woman's footsteps through the streets of her native city, on a journey of recovery fr ...

Antonia Bird: From EastEnders to Hollywood (2016)

In this new documentary, Susan Kemp explores the life and work of the great British director Antonia Bird, who died in 2013. Bird blazed a trail from the radical hotbed of the Royal Court Theatre in the 70s, via the groundbreaking early days of EastEnders ...

I Am Belfast (2016)

Belfast, it's a city that is changing, changing because the people are leaving? But one came back, a 10,000 year old woman who claims that she is the city itself. ...

Eisenstein on Lawrence (2016)

In Kino Klassika's first film commission, British filmmaker Mark Cousins imagines a conversation between D.H.Lawrence and Sergei Eisenstein. This playful film essay carries forward Mark's film dialogue with Eisenstein from his feature film about Eisenstein ...

Bigger Than The Shining (2016)

Mark Cousins (The Story of Film: An Odyssey) reflects on questions concerning copyright and the extent to which a film can conform to the associations of the person watching it. Can two people ever really see the same film? ...

Your Eyes Flash Solemnly with Hate (2015)

A young man's swirling thoughts as he contemplates the murder of filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini shortly after the deed takes place. ...

Atomic: Living in Dread and Promise (2015)

Using only archive film and a new musical score by the band Mogwai, Mark Cousins presents an impressionistic kaleidoscope of our nuclear times – protest marches, Cold War sabre-rattling, Chernobyl and Fukishima – but also the sublime beauty of the atom ...

6 Desires (2014)

Documentary filmmaker Mark Cousins follows in the footsteps of DH Lawrence in this dazzling road-trip through Sardinia. ...

The Film That Buys the Cinema (2014)

A collection of films from an eclectic array of contributors commissioned to raise funds for the Bristol independent cinema The Cube. ...

The Place (2014)

Life May Be (2014)

An epistolary feature film: a cinematic discourse between a British director Mark Cousins, and an Iranian actress and director Mania Akbari which extends the concept of "essay film" with startling confrontations in the arenas of cultural issues, gender pol ...

But Then Again, Too Few to Mention (2014)

To celebrate the online release of the British Council's Film Collection - an archive of 120 short documentaries made throughout the 1940s to showcase Britain to the rest of the world - we invited three contemporary UK filmmakers to respond to the Collecti ...

Apollo: First War Cinema (2013)

In 1993 Sarajevo was under the siege. Against all odds a small group of enthusiasts managed to open the First War Cinema in Sarajevo. For them this cinema was a distinction between surviving and being alive. Twenty years afterwards the marks of being alive ...

Here Be Dragons (2013)

Filmmaker Mark Cousins goes to Albania for five days, and films what he sees. He discovers that the movie prints in the country's film archive are decaying. In investigating this, Cousins begins to encounter bigger questions about the history and memory of ...

A Story of Children and Film (2013)

A meticulous essay on the presence and representation of children in the history of cinema, in which cinematographies from all over the world are analyzed. ...

What Is This Film Called Love? (2012)

What is this film called Love? is a passionate, 77 minute poetic documentary about the nature of happiness. ...

60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero (2011)

An anthology of one-minute films created by 51 international filmmakers on the theme of the death of cinema. Intended as an ode to 35mm, the film was screened one time only on a purpose-built 20x12 meter public cinema screen in the Port of Tallinn, Estonia ...

The First Movie (2009)

Filmmaker Mark Cousins, who was brought up in a Northern Irish war zone, travels to Goptapa, a Kurdish-Iraqi village of just seven hundred people on a tributary of the Tigris river, and tries to make a dream film about a place that is normally only portray ...

First Impressions (2008)

Film maker Mark Cousins visited northern Iraq in the summer of 2008. This is a snapshot of what he found there. An imaginative, soulful reflection of a beautiful complicated place. ...

The New Ten Commandments (2008)

The film was produced by Nick Higgins from Lansdowne Productions and Noémie Mendelle from the Scottish Documentary Institute and has 10 film-chapter directors for each of the 10 chapters of the film. The film's unifying theme is human rights in Scotland w ...

Cinema Iran (2005)

Tracing the history and influence of Iranian cinema and its filmmakers. ...

On the Road with Kiarostami (2005)

Abbas Kiarostami is the most acclaimed Iranian film director whose films have won prizes all around the world. In this film he gives a rare and frank interview about his work, and journeys out of Tehran to meet Babk Ahmadpoor the now grown up star of his f ...

Faith (2005)

A gripping story of love, deceit, betrayal and survival set against the backdrop of the Miners' Strike of 1984-85. Michelle is married to Gary, a young miner who goes on strike as soon as the dispute between the Thatcher government and the National Union o ...

Pulp Fact (1997)

Short video essay by critic/filmmaker Mark Cousins about the influence of Pulp Fiction. He discusses the influence of the film and his personal view on it, wich isn't without criticism. ...

I Remember IKWIG (1996)

Ian Hamilton Finlay: In a Wee Way (1996)

I Know Where I'm Going! Revisited (1994)

Nancy Franklin was so overwhelmed by the film 'I Know Where I'm Going!' (1945) that she traveled from New York to the Western Isles of Scotland to see the places where it was made and to find out more about the people who made it. This documentary retraces ...

Another Journey By Train (1993)

Four young neo-Nazis travel across Europe discussing their beliefs and their disbelief in the Holocaust. They meet several Holocaust survivors on their journey, including Kitty Hart-Moxon at Auschwitz, where she had been imprisoned for almost two years. ...

Gulf War: Scottish Eye (1990)

TV doc about military training in the first Gulf War. ...

Dear Mr Gorbachev (1990)

A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things (2024)

One of the most important women in British modern art, the painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was a highly inspirational figure, whose work was deeply impacted by a pivotal event in her life. In May 1949, this leading representative of the modernist St Ives g ...

The Complete Story of Film (2023)

At 18 hours and 43 minutes long, 'The Complete Story of Film' collects two epic documentaries by Mark Cousins into a stunningly expansive global journey through film history from the birth of cinema to today. The Story of Film: An Odyssey is an inclusive a ...

My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock (2023)

Directed by Mark Cousins, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock re-examines the vast filmography and legacy of one of the 20th century's greatest filmmakers, Alfred Hitchcock, through a new lens: through the auteur's own voice. ...

Cannes Uncut (2023)

Looks at the glamour, red carpets, movies, craziness, stunts, deals, parties and personalities that have been part of the Cannes Film Festival over eight decades, as well as looking to the future. ...

The March on Rome (2022)

The fascinating story of the rise to power of dictator Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) in Italy in 1922 and how fascism marked the fate of the entire world in the dark years to come. ...

The Story of Film: A New Generation (2021)

The final chapter of his exceptional 15-part documentary exploring the history of cinema, The Story of Film: An Odyssey. Mark Cousins builds a bridge between the "before" of the health crisis, and the "after". ...

The Storms of Jeremy Thomas (2021)

Joining Oscar-winning producer Jeremy Thomas on his annual pilgrimage to the Cannes Film Festival, filmmaker Mark Cousins gives an intimate glimpse into the life of the legendary icon behind some of the most controversial and acclaimed films of all time. ...

The Flowers the Fish and the Cockerel (2021)

A first encounter. At the Venice Film Festival. A second encounter. Again the Venice Film Festival. A crescendo of curiosity, wish to know and discover more. Months go by. A crazy idea. Dear Mark, can we make a documentary about you? The journey begins, Ed ...

The Story of Looking (2021)

As he prepares for surgery to restore his vision, Mark Cousins explores the role that visual experience plays in our individual and collective lives. In a deeply personal meditation on the power of looking in his own life, he guides us through the riches o ...

Who Is Bill Rebane? (2021)

A feature-length documentary on the life and work of Wisconsin grindhouse cinema auteur Bill Rebane, featuring historians, critics, and filmmakers, plus cast and crew members who worked with Rebane himself. ...

40 Days to Learn Film (2020)

For just forty days, filmmaker and writer Mark Cousins embarks on a peculiar journey in order to explore topics as the passion for cinema and certain aspects related to making films as style, ideas, emotions and practicalities; an ambitious exploration of ...

50 Years of the Troubles: A Journey Through Film (2019)

The film marks 50 years since riots erupted across Northern Ireland, widely seen as the beginning of the thirty-year conflict known as The Troubles. Mark Cousins – who left Belfast at 18 – returns to his hometown to reflect on how the place and its his ...

The Eyes of Orson Welles (2018)

A poetic journey into the visual world of the legendary filmmaker and actor Orson Welles (1915-85) that reveals a new portrait of a unique genius, both of his life and of his monumental work: through his own eyes, drawn by his own hand, painted with his ow ...

Love Express. The Disappearance of Walerian Borowczyk (2018)

A documentary celebrating the work of Walerian Borowczyk, a director of unparalleled sensitivity, revered in the 1970s, who was later labeled as a maker of erotic movies. ...

The Dream Palace: A People's History of Tyneside Cinema (2018)

In 2017 Tyneside Cinema turned 80. ...

Antonia Bird: From EastEnders to Hollywood (2016)

In this new documentary, Susan Kemp explores the life and work of the great British director Antonia Bird, who died in 2013. Bird blazed a trail from the radical hotbed of the Royal Court Theatre in the 70s, via the groundbreaking early days of EastEnders ...

Looking for Charlie: Or, the Day the Clown Died (2016)

A documentary which explores the lives and tragic deaths of Marceline Orbes and Francis "Slivers" Oakley, the suicidal clowns who inspired Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. ...

The Film That Buys the Cinema (2014)

A collection of films from an eclectic array of contributors commissioned to raise funds for the Bristol independent cinema The Cube. ...

Life May Be (2014)

An epistolary feature film: a cinematic discourse between a British director Mark Cousins, and an Iranian actress and director Mania Akbari which extends the concept of "essay film" with startling confrontations in the arenas of cultural issues, gender pol ...

Here Be Dragons (2013)

Filmmaker Mark Cousins goes to Albania for five days, and films what he sees. He discovers that the movie prints in the country's film archive are decaying. In investigating this, Cousins begins to encounter bigger questions about the history and memory of ...

A Story of Children and Film (2013)

A meticulous essay on the presence and representation of children in the history of cinema, in which cinematographies from all over the world are analyzed. ...

Cinema Is Everywhere (2011)

A documentary feature film that ties four narratives - from China, India, Scotland, and Tunisia - together with countless insights from venerable filmmakers and ordinary moviegoers. An aspiring actress in Mumbai battles to break into Bollywood; two friends ...

The First Movie (2009)

Filmmaker Mark Cousins, who was brought up in a Northern Irish war zone, travels to Goptapa, a Kurdish-Iraqi village of just seven hundred people on a tributary of the Tigris river, and tries to make a dream film about a place that is normally only portray ...

The New Ten Commandments (2008)

The film was produced by Nick Higgins from Lansdowne Productions and Noémie Mendelle from the Scottish Documentary Institute and has 10 film-chapter directors for each of the 10 chapters of the film. The film's unifying theme is human rights in Scotland w ...

Cinema Iran (2005)

Tracing the history and influence of Iranian cinema and its filmmakers. ...

I Know Where I'm Going! Revisited (1994)

Nancy Franklin was so overwhelmed by the film 'I Know Where I'm Going!' (1945) that she traveled from New York to the Western Isles of Scotland to see the places where it was made and to find out more about the people who made it. This documentary retraces ...