Mark Cousins has new 16-part series, The Story Of Documentary Film

Mark Cousins, following the wonderful The Story Of Film, now has The Story Of Documentary Film heading our way. More here.

It was all the way back in 2011 that film critic and maker Mark Cousins launched arguably his most acclaimed work, the 15-part documentary series The Story Of Film: An Odyssey. Based on his impressive book from 2004, the series remains on the syllabus for film courses around the country, and it’s an accessible jump into the life and times of film. It remains a series that’s flown under a lot of radars, but it’s also well worth seeking out.

A follow-up, The Story Of Film: A New Generation, launched in 2021.

But now we learn that he’s been working on something just as ambitious. The Story Of Documentary Film is a 16-part series that’s based on around 30 years of research that Cousins has undertaken.

Furthermore, as per Screen Daily, the series has now been acquired by documentary specialists Dogwoof, which now has the worldwide sales rights to the series. Dogwoof and Cousins have worked together several times before, and presumably, the plan now is to use the Cannes Film Festival to find buyers around the world.

In the UK, the original series was broadcast on More4, and if memory serves, released with minimal fanfare as well. There have been DVD and Blu-ray releases of it, which have helped increase its visibility. Quite what Dogwoof’s plans are in the UK remain unclear, but surely the hope is that a broadcaster will acquire the programme, and give it a reasonable amount of prominence. I can but live in hope.

If you want to catch up on The Story Of Film, then the DVD and Blu-ray release – which is out of print – can be found here. In the meantime, as we hear more about The Story Of Documentary Film, we’ll let you know as and when we hear it.

Image credit: Mariusz Kubik – CC BY 4.0