Mark Cousins

Mark Nathaniel Cousins (born 3 May 1965) is a Northern Irish director and writer. A prolific documentarian, among his best-known works is the 15-hour 2011 documentary The Story of Film: An Odyssey.

Early life and education Born in Coventry, England, Cousins was raised in Northern Ireland, moving with his family from Belfast to Ardglass and then to Antrim, while attending St Louis Grammar School in nearby Ballymena. The twin son of a mixed Catholic–Protestant marriage, he has described his upbringing as marked by class awareness and the tensions of The Troubles, recalling having to stay overnight at school during the 1974 Ulster Workers' Council strike “in case those bad people got us.”

Career Cousins interviewed famous filmmakers such as David Lynch, Martin Scorsese and Roman Polanski in the TV series Scene by Scene. He presented the BBC cult film series Moviedrome from June 1997 to July 2000. He introduced 66 films for the show, including the little-seen Nicolas Roeg film Eureka.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Cousins interviewed directors, producers, and actors including Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, Tom Hanks, Sean Connery, Brian De Palma, Steve Martin, Lauren Bacall, Jane Russell, Paul Schrader, Bernardo Bertolucci, Kirk Douglas, Jeanne Moreau, Terence Stamp, Jack Lemmon, Janet Leigh and Rod Steiger.

In 2009, Cousins and Tilda Swinton co-founded the "8 1/2 Foundation". Together they also created a project where they mounted a 33.5-tonne portable cinema on a large truck which was physically pulled through the Scottish Highlands. The travelling independent film festival was featured prominently in a documentary called Cinema is Everywhere. The festival was repeated in 2011.

Cousins's 2011 film The Story of Film: An Odyssey was broadcast on Channel 4 as 15 one-hour television episodes on More4, In September 2013, it began to be shown on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Drawing on its exhaustive film library, TCM complemented each episode with relevant short films and feature films ranging from the familiar to the rarely seen. TCM received a 2013 Peabody Award "for its inclusive, uniquely annotated survey of world cinema history".

What Is This Film Called Love?, an experimental self-shot travel diary in which Cousins spends three days exploring Mexico City, was a spontaneous project that grew out of exhaustion after completing The Story of Film. while Jessica Kiang in The Playlist described watching it as a deeply personal experience that she found unexpectedly affecting, though acknowledging it is "undoubtedly not for everyone" and could strike others as "pretentious" or "amateurish."

A similar production approach was made in Here Be Dragons, which begins as a short trip to Albania to attend the 13th Tirana International Film Festival but pivots to focus on the deteriorating state of the Albanian film archive and the urgency of its preservation. In it Cousins repurposes footage from the archive and intercuts it with that of his own wanderings to highlight the country's cinematic heritage. Produced on a microbudget of £10,000, it was shot and edited over the course of nine days. while Time Out called it "another thoughtful meditation on our emotional and political relationship to the screen". Charel Muller of Cineuropa noted that whether viewers enjoy it "depends very much on your personal opinion of Cousins."

6 Desires: DH Lawrence and Sardinia follows Cousins on a road trip through the island inspired by the writer's 1921 visit, continuing his series of travel-based essay films that mix personal reflection with observations on place and history. In Life May Be Cousins turns his usual solo style into a dialogue by structuring it as a series of video letters exchanged between him and Iranian director and actor Mania Akbari.

A Story of Children and Film received positive reviews from multiple critics, with Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian calling it "entirely distinctive, sometimes eccentric, always brilliant".

Cousins subsequently wrote and directed I Am Belfast, in which the city is personified by a 10,000-year-old woman. Portions of the film in progress, with a score by Belfast composer David Holmes were screened at the 2014 Belfast Film Festival.

Cousins took an axe to his own film Bigger Than The Shining after screening to a live audience at the 2017 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), with the intention of never screening it again; he said private viewing links still existed but urged their holders to delete them.

Cousins is the co-artistic director of Cinema China, The Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams, and A Pilgrimage, with Tilda Swinton. Together with Antonia Bird, Robert Carlyle, and Irvine Welsh, Cousins is a director of the production company 4Way Pictures. Between 2001 and 2011, he wrote for Prospect, and now writes for Sight & Sound and Filmkrant.

Cousins was appointed honorary professor of the University of Glasgow in 2013, as well as being awarded honorary doctorates at both the University of Edinburgh in 2007 and University of Stirling in 2014.

Cousins is a patron of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and previously acted as both a programmer and director (1996–1997) of the festival.

Cousins chairs the Belfast Film Festival, and is a board member of Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival. He was 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 2019, Cousins was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

In 2021, he was on the jury for that year's BFI London Film Festival.

His film The Story of Film: A New Generation was first screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021.

Personal life

Cousins has been in a long-term relationship with psychotherapist Gill Moreton, whom he met at the University of Stirling in 1984; they live in Edinburgh.

In December 2023 Cousins was one of 50 filmmakers who signed an open letter to Libération demanding a ceasefire and an end to the killing of civilians amid the 2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, and for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza to be established for humanitarian aid, and the release of hostages.

Filmography

Year Title Role Format Runtime Notes 1989 Dear Mr Gorbachev Associate director TV 60m Directed with Michael Grigsby, ITV 1990 Gulf War: Scottish Eye Director TV 38 mins 1993 Another Journey by Train Co-director and producer TV 59 mins Co-directed by Mark Forrest 1994 I Know Where I'm Going! Revisited Director TV 40 mins 1996 Ian Hamilton Finlay: In a Wee Way Director TV 38 mins Co-directed by Mark Forrest I Remember IKWIG Director TV 40m 1997–2001 Scene by Scene Director and presenter TV 24 Episodes x 60 mins Interviews include Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, David Lynch, Jane Russell, Paul Schrader, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Roman Polanski. Shown on BBC. 1997–2000 Moviedrome Presenter TV 66 Episodes x 5 mins Shown on BBC. 2005 Cinema Iran Director and narrator TV 59 mins Shown on Channel 4. Presented by Omid Djalili On the Road with Kiarostami Writer and director TV 28 mins Faith Executive Producer TV movie 102 mins Starring Maxine Peake, Clive Russell and Jason Flemyng. 2008 First Impressions Writer and director Short Film 15 mins Shot in Northern Iraq. The New Ten Commandments: Kenny Richie Co-director Film Anthology Film Co-directed with Irvine Welsh. Shown on BBC Two The New Ten Commandments: 8 1/2 Co-director Film Anthology Film Co-directed with Tilda Swinton. Shown on BBC Two The New Ten Commandments Contributing Director Film 101 mins Co-directed of two of the ten Chapters. Shown on BBC Two 2009 The First Movie Writer and director Film 81 mins BAFTA Scotland Award Nominee for ‘Best Single Documentary’, Royal Television Society Award Nominee for ‘Best Arts Documentary’. 2011 The Story of Film: An Odyssey Writer, director and narrator Film 930 mins Shown on More4 and Turner Classic Movies. 60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero Contributing director Anthology Film 60 mins Cinema Is Everywhere Self Film 86 mins Centred on a project between Cousins and Tilda Swinton. 2012 What Is this Film Called Love? Writer, director and narrator Film 75 mins A personal film about Mexico City and Sergei Eisenstein 2013 Dear Georges Méliès Writer and co-director Short Film 8 ½ mins Co-directed with 102 children and Tilda Swinton. Apollo: Prvo ratno kino Co-writer Short Film 14 mins Here Be Dragons Writer and director Film 76 mins Centred on Albanian cinema A Story of Children and Film Writer, director and narrator Film 101 mins 2014 Homeless Writer and director Short Film 10 mins The Wind in the Trees Writer and director Short Film 10 mins The Place Writer and director Short Film 38 mins The Big Shave Backwards Writer and director Short Film 1 min Life May Be Co-writer and co-director Film 80 mins Cine-letters between Mark Cousins and Mania Akbari The Oar and the Winnowing Fan Writer and director Short Film 4 Episodes x Various mins But Then Again, Too Few to Mention Writer and director Short Film 7 mins The Film That Buys the Cinema Contributing Writer and director Film 77 mins Alongside Nicolas Roeg, Tony Grisoni, Jennifer Abbott and Peter Strickland. 6 Desires: D. H. Lawrence and Sardinia Writer, director and narrator Film 83 mins The Place Writer and director Short Film 38 mins Dear John Grierson Writer and director Short Film 30 mins 2015 Your Eyes Flash Solemnly with Hate Writer and director Short Film 10 mins About the killer of Pier Paolo Pasolini I Am Belfast Writer, director and narrator Film 86 mins Cinematography by Christopher Doyle Atomic, Living in Dread and Promise Writer and director Film 72 mins Score by Mogwai. Produced by BBC and the British Film Institute. 2016 Antonia Bird: From EastEnders to Hollywood Executive producer and self Film 90 mins About Cousin's late friend Antonia Bird Stockholm, My Love Co-writer and director Film 88 mins Cinematography by Christopher Doyle, starring Neneh Cherry and co-written by Anita Oxburgh Bigger Than The Shining Director Film 83 mins Cousins axed the film's DCP after a screening at the 2017 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), intending it to never be shown again. Film 840 mins Starring Thandiwe Newton, Jane Fonda, Tilda Swinton, Sharmila Tagore, Adjoa Andoh and Debra Winger. 2020 Alexander's Film Writer and director Short Film 8 mins 40 Days to Learn Film Writer, director and narrator Film 136 mins This Violation Director Short Film 8 mins Dear Paul Schrader Writer and director Short Film 11 mins 2021 The Storms of Jeremy Thomas Writer and director Film 90 mins A road movie with the film producer Jeremy Thomas. The Story of Looking Writer, director and narrator Film 84 mins Based loosely on the book by Cousins of the same name. The Story of Film: A New Generation Writer, director and narrator Film 160 mins A sequel to The Story of Film: An Odyssey. The Flowers the Fish and the Cockerel Self / film subject Film 83 mins A documentary about Mark Cousins. 2022 March on Rome Writer, director and narrator Film 94 mins A documentary about the ascent of fascism in Italy 2024 A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things Writer and director Film 88 mins A documentary about artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham2026The Story of Documentary FilmWriter and directorFilm240 minsA documentary on the history of documentary film