Mark Cousins
Birthday: Born in 1965-05-03 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Deathday: Alive
Mark Cousins is an Irish documentary filmmaker, film critic and programmer. A prolific producer and director, he is best known for his 15-hour documentary The Story of Film: An Odyssey" (2011). Cousins was appointed Honorary Professor of the University of Glasgow in 2013, as well as Honorary Doctor of Letters at both the University of Edinburgh in 2007 and University of Stirling in 2014. He is now a Patron of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Cousins previously acted as both a programmer and director (1996-1997) of the festival. He is a Board Member of Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival and a Member of the Audentia Award jury at the 42nd Göteborg International Film Festival (GIFF) in 2019, as well as Member of the Official Competition jury at the 53rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2018. In 2021, Cousins joined the jury of the BFI London Film Festival.
TV Credits
The Story of Film: An Odyssey
Character: Presenter / Narrator
A worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made and the story of international cinema through the history of cinematic innovation....
Scene by Scene
Character: Self - Presenter
Mark Cousins invites film actors and directors to watch major scenes in their career to date, and to talk us through them....
Movie Credits
The Flowers the Fish and the Cockerel
Character: Himself
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, Edinburgh in the background, an intimate film on the creative daily life of Mark Cousins. Director, writer, film polymath, teacher but, more than anything, Mark. Mark shows himself unfiltered, he lives his life in front of our camera, but he can’...
The Storms of Jeremy Thomas
Character: Self
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 Film: A New Generation
Character: Narrator
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”....
My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock
Character: Self (voice)
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 First Movie
Character: Self – Documentarist
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 portrayed in current affairs programmes. He gives the kids cameras, and they make their own little movies about war, love, a fish that goes to a magical place, and a chicken who debates justice....
The March on Rome
Character: Self - Narrator (voice)
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....
A Story of Children and Film
Character: Himself - Narrator (voice)
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....
The Complete Story of Film
Character: Narrator
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 and ground-breaking journey through the history of world cinema and a treat for movie lovers around the globe. Guided by filmmaker and historian Mark Cousins, this wonderfully insightful 15-hour love letter to the movies begins with the inventio...
Love Express. The Disappearance of Walerian Borowczyk
Character: Self
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 Film That Buys the Cinema
Character:
A collection of films from an eclectic array of contributors commissioned to raise funds for the Bristol independent cinema The Cube....
Cannes Uncut
Character: Self
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....
Looking for Charlie: Or, the Day the Clown Died
Character: Self - Interviewee
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 Dream Palace: A People's History of Tyneside Cinema
Character:
In 2017 Tyneside Cinema turned 80....
The Eyes of Orson Welles
Character: Self - Filmmaker / Narrator (voice)
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 own brush....
50 Years of the Troubles: A Journey Through Film
Character: Himself
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 history have been used and occasionally abused by cinema. He traces how the legacy of division has impacted on the nation’s cinematic imagination; and, in a city that once had one of the highest rates of movie-going in the UK, he scrambles around the ...
40 Days to Learn Film
Character: Self - Narrator (voice)
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 the universal language of cinema by analyzing pieces of work that cross every artistic and cultural boundaries....
The Story of Looking
Character: Self
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 of the visible world, a kaleidoscope of extraordinary imagery across cultures and eras. At a time when we are more assailed by images than ever, he reveals how looking makes us who we are, lying at the heart of the human experience, empathy, dis...
Who Is Bill Rebane?
Character: Self
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....
The New Ten Commandments
Character: Self
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 with each chapter illustrating one of the "New Ten Commandments" - 10 articles chosen from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The 10 film chapters of The New Ten Commandments 1. The Right to Freedom of Assembly - Dir, David Graham Scott 2...