July 16, 2026
Documentary kills fascism! - Mark Cousins at DokuFest!
One of the most unique occurring in this jubilar edition is the news that Mark Cousins is finally coming to DokuFest. Every year his non-presence-presence has been somewhat of an urban legend. Is Mark Cousins finally coming to Prizren? Well sure he is this time. Having screened a number of Cousin’s films in the past, including the screening in its entirety of his epic, 15 hour The Story of Film: An Odyssey back in 2011, the time has indeed come for Mark to be present at the festival with his most recent one.
And his most recent film The Story of Documentary Film, arrives 100 years after John Grierson coined the term ‘documentary’, and continues a familiar mission: to recover and retell a neglected history, that of the world and of the film history itself. Told across 16 chapters, or rather decades, the serialized film traces documentary’s evolution in broadly chronological order, taking in stories from around the world and clips from countless films.
At DokuFest, audience will have a chance to look at two chapters or episodes from The Story of Documentary Film, the 60’s and the 80’s.
The 1960s chapter titled “Not willing to Obey” traces the documentary's transformation from passive observation to active resistance, as new technologies empowered filmmakers to confront power and reshape the role of cinema. And in the ‘80s chapter, Cousins argues that the documentary form expanded beyond political observation to become a deeply personal and self-aware form, exploring memory, identity, and the many ways truth can be told.
And with his whirlwind of encyclopedic knowledge laid out gracefully and generously, and with his hypnotic Belfast accent that often feels as if he’s whispering more than speaking, whilst sharing and revealing discoveries from known and unknown filmmakers, our excitement to welcome someone as unique as Mark is everlasting.
Cover Imager: Reuters
