Mark Cousins: The Story of Documentary Film (Part 1) Episodes 1-4 (four hours) in person: Mark Cousins, John Archer, Joslyn Barnes (world premiere of the complete series)

Mark Cousins: The Story of Documentary Film (Scotland/GB 2026). Agnès Varda frames the image in Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (FR 2000).

Telluride Film Festival (TFF) 2026

Viewed at Chuck Jones' Cinema, Mountain Village, 4 Sep 2026

TFF 2026 Program Guide:

Part 1 C/Fri 10AM - Part 2 C/Fri 2:15PM - Part 3 MV/Sat 8:30AM - Part 4 M/Mon 9AM Q&A

38 The Story of Documentary Film

Jason Silverman: "Mark Cousins, our most eloquent and prolific cinephile, has directed some 60+ hours of documentaries. His latest Herculean effort, a 16-hour film, exists in a class by itself, an encyclopedic yet poetic summary-analysis-celebration of non-fiction film that travels the globe and spans 130 years, from pre-Lumière experiments to today. He shares exquisite clips of city symphonies, ethnographic treasures, Fascist propaganda and personal essays in an endless, continually fascinating stream (the film would be a thrill to watch even as a silent reel). His narration alternates between astounding factoids, provocative musings, political insights and odd confluences (the film starts with shots of elephants, taken over the course of 100+ years). Cousins has gifted us more than the story of documentary: it’s a story of big ideas, of truth and truthiness, of history unfolding before our very eyes. Watching it, in part or in whole, will rewire you." –JS (Scotland/U.K., 2026, 960m, shown in four parts) In person: Mark Cousins, John Archer, Joslyn Barnes

AA: Mark Cousins' 16-hour montage film is what the title announces: a history of the non-fiction film. Equally, it is a history of the world from the last 130 years - the film age. It is idiosyncratic but also a professional survey of the major periods, currents, trends, authors, continents and cultures of non-fiction. Cousins has a sober awareness of the difficulty of defining the "documentary". Since the one-minute actualities of the Lumière brothers, reality was staged for the camera, and Flaherty consciously recreated the past for his ethnographic classics, people enacting habits of their forefathers. It was never a matter of a simple record.

I entered Chuck Jones' Cinema fortified by a superb tuna club sandwich from the nearby Telluride Coffee Shop (Mountain Village), not yet finally committed to the 16 hour marathon spread over four screenings. But as soon as the first hour-long chapter ends, I have no other choice than to stay, although that means sacrificing other irresistible alternatives from the festival programme. I admire the encyclopedism, generalism and universalism of Cousins. He has changed our view about film history with achievements such as the inspirational 14-hour Women Make Film (in 40 chapters) which had a huge impact in the film programming at film culture festivals and film archive programming.

The Story of Documentary Film promises to be another stunning fount of inspiration. The work has already made the rounds of international film festivals. The first complete run of the series takes place in Telluride.