The Story of Film

Journey through the complete history of cinema in this special 4-week season

While Melbourne remains in lockdown, our Virtual Cinémathèque is traversing the globe with Mark Cousins’ documentary series, The Story of Film: An Odyssey. Over the next four weeks, this series will form the spine of our program as we present select episodes accompanied by feature films cited in the series.

Based on Mark Cousins' 2004 book of the same name, The Story of Film: An Odyssey is a 15-hour episodic film that charts 12 decades, 6 continents and thousands of films. The documentary was released in 2012 and played on UK Television, international film festivals and in cinemas. At ACMI we welcomed audiences over five nights to see the full 15-hour series in its entirety!

Ahead of these screenings, we spoke to Mark Cousins about The Story of Film: An Odyssey. Scroll down to read the interview and explore the first instalment of his film below.

– Kristy Matheson, Director of ACMI's Film Programs