Scottish Premiere of Mark Cousins’ new film The Story of Looking @ Edinburgh Filmhouse

Scottish Premiere of Mark Cousins’ new film The Story of Looking at Edinburgh Filmhouse, Sunday 29 August, marks the launch of the ultimate Mark Cousins collection on Filmhouse @ Home

Described by Variety as “An uplifting meditation on the power of looking”, Mark Cousins explores the role that visual experience plays in our individual and collective lives as he prepares for surgery to restore his vision. 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, discovery and thought. He shares the pleasure and pain of seeing the world, in all its complexity and contradiction, with eyes wide open. As the Covid-19 pandemic brings another dramatic shift of perspective, he reaches out to the other lookers for their vision from lockdown, and travels to the future to consider how his looking life will continue to develop until the very end.

Mark Cousins said:

For 36 years, Filmhouse has been my local cinema, my education, my escape and consolation, so I LOVE the idea that it will host my movies on Filmhouse at Home. I’ve been a passionate filmmaker for three decades. Many of my films have been influenced by what I’ve seen in Filmhouse. Now, for the first time, many of them are in one place. I’m humbled, as are my many collaborators – editor, producers, sound designers, composers and graphics artists – in Edinburgh, Scotland and further afield. Thank you from all of us.

More about Mark…

Mark Cousins is an Irish-Scottish director and writer. His films – including The First Movie, The Story of Film: An Odyssey, What is This Film Called Love?, Life May Be, A Story of Children and Film, Atomic, Stockholm My Love, I am Belfast and The Eyes of Orson Welles – have premiered in Cannes, Berlin, Sundance and Venice film festivals and have won the Prix Italia, a Peabody, the Stanley Kubrick Award, the European Film Award for Innovative Storytelling, and many other prizes. He has filmed in Iraq, Sarajevo during the siege, Iran, across Asia and in America in Europe. He has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Edinburgh and Stirling.

Mark’s books include Imagining Reality: The Faber Book of Documentary, The Story of Film and The Story of Looking. They have been published around the world. He has collaborated with Tilda Swinton on innovative film events, and tried to find new, passionate, filmic ways to explore his themes: looking, cities, cinema, childhood, and recovery.

He is the Chair of the Belfast Film Festival, a Patron of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and an advisor to Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival. His 14 hour documentary Women Make Film tries to rethink cinema. It is narrated by Jane Fonda, Tilda Swinton, Sharmila Tagore, Kerry Fox, Debra Winger, Adjoa Andoh and Thandie Newton. His newest films are The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, The Story of Looking and The Story of Film: A New Generation . He has walked across Los Angeles, Belfast, Moscow, Beijing, London, Paris, Berlin, Dakar and Mexico City. He drove from Edinburgh to Mumbai, and loves night swimming.

The ultimate Mark Cousins collection on Filmhouse @ Home includes 13 films:

The First Movie (w/d/dp, 81 m, 2009)

The Story of Film: An Odyssey (w/d/dp, 930 m, 2011)

What is this Film Called Love? (w/d/dp, 75 m, 2012) a personal film about Mexico City and Sergei Eisenstein

Here be Dragons (w/d/dp 76 mins, 2013) About Albania

A Story of Children and Film (w/d/dp, 101 m, 2013)

Life May Be (co-w/co-d/co-dp with Mania Akbari, 80 m, 2014) Cine-letters

6 Desires: DH Lawrence and Sardinia (w/d/dp, 83 m, 2014)

I am Belfast (w/d/co-dp, 86 m, 2015) A city film, co-shot by Christopher Doyle

Atomic (d, 72 mins, 2015) A montage film, with a new score by Mogwai

Stockholm My Love (w/d, co-dp 2016) City musical, with Neneh Cherry

The Eyes of Orson Welles (w/d/dp, 100 mins, 2018)