Kino Lorber closed a North American distribution deal for The Story of Documentary Film, a 16-part documentary series by Mark Cousins that traces the evolution of nonfiction cinema from its late-19th-century beginnings to today. The series isn’t just a chronological checklist—it digs into the cultural and political forces that shaped every major movement, from Soviet agitprop to cinéma vérité, Direct Cinema, and the digital era. Cousins, a Scottish filmmaker and critic best known for The Story of Film, spent years filming interviews with directors, archivists, and scholars across six continents. The result is a sprawling oral history that treats documentaries as living artifacts rather than dusty relics. Cousins told Variety the project started as a personal obsession. “I grew up watching old Soviet films and thought, ‘How did we get here?’” he said. “This series answers that in a way no book ever could.”

A global project filmed in 24 countries

The series was shot in 24 countries, with key episodes filmed in Cannes, Leipzig, Yamagata, and IDA’s Getting Real conference in Los Angeles. Cousins and his team interviewed 200 filmmakers and critics, including Werner Herzog, Laura Poitras, Kevin Macdonald, and Patricio Guzmán. Herzog’s segment runs 45 minutes alone. “Documentaries are the most honest form of cinema,” Herzog told Cousins during a two-hour sit-down in Munich. “They don’t lie—they just tell different kinds of truths.” The series also features rare archival clips, including the first known nonfiction footage ever shot in 1895 by Auguste Lumière and Louis Lumière.

Kino Lorber’s bet on a definitive archive

Kino Lorber, which has distributed everything from Agnès Varda’s final films to Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s most experimental works, sees Cousins’ series as a cornerstone release. The company plans a staggered rollout across theaters, educational institutions, and streaming platforms later this year. “This isn’t just a documentary about documentaries—it’s a time capsule,” said Dennis Doros, Kino Lorber’s co-president. “It’s the kind of project we fight to get our hands on because it’s both a teaching tool and a love letter to cinema.” The company already has a track record with Cousins’ work, having released his 2011 film The Story of Film: An Odyssey, which clocked in at 15 hours and became a reference for film schools worldwide.

Global appetite for documentary history

Before the North American deal closed, The Story of Documentary Film already found buyers in four territories: I Wonder (Italy), Filmin (Spain and Portugal), and Madman (Australia and New Zealand). I Wonder, a boutique streaming service focused on Italian and European cinema, will premiere the series in Italian dubs with subtitles this fall. Filmin, a Spanish platform with over 10,000 titles, plans a weekly drop of two episodes starting in September. Madman, which dominates the Australian market for arthouse and documentary content, will release the series on DVD and home video first, then stream it on its platform next spring. “Documentary audiences in Australia are hungry for this kind of depth,” said a Madman spokesperson. “We’re expecting teachers, students, and filmmakers to binge this thing in one sitting.”

The series’ structure mirrors Cousins’ earlier work but zeroes in on nonfiction. Volume 1 covers the medium’s birth from the Lumières’ early actualities to Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North (1922). Volume 3 dives into the Soviet montage theory of Dziga Vertov and Sergei Eisenstein, while Volume 8 focuses on the rise of American Direct Cinema in the 1960s. Cousins weaves in personal essays, too—his own childhood memories of watching Night Mail (1936) on TV in Belfast shape a whole episode. “I wanted the series to feel like a conversation, not a lecture,” he said. “It’s as much about how these films made me feel as it is about their technical innovations.”

Cousins also tackles the thorny politics of documentary ethics. Episodes on Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will and Triumph Films raise tough questions about propaganda versus art. Another episode explores how colonial-era filmmakers like Robert Flaherty shaped (and sometimes distorted) Indigenous narratives. “Documentaries aren’t neutral,” Cousins argues. “They’re weapons, tools, and mirrors—sometimes all at once.”

Kino Lorber hasn’t announced exact release dates yet, but industry insiders expect a limited theatrical run in major cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago in early 2025, followed by a wider rollout. Educational institutions can already pre-order classroom licenses through the series’ distributor, Little White Lies Films. The company is also in talks with Criterion Channel and MUBI for streaming distribution. For Cousins, the project is both a capstone and a new beginning. “I’m 60 now,” he said. “This might be my last big film—but it’s the one I’ll be most proud of.”

What You Need to Know

  • Source: Variety
  • Published: May 17, 2026 at 09:05 UTC
  • Category: Entertainment
  • Topics: #variety · #movies · #hollywood · #entertainment · #kino-lorber-acquires · #mark-cousins

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Curated by GlobalBR News · May 17, 2026

🇧🇷 Resumo em Português

O cinema documental ganha um presente histórico: a série de Mark Cousins, “The Story of Documentary Film”, chega à América do Norte após uma aquisição exclusiva da distribuidora Kino Lorber, prometendo revelar os bastidores e a evolução do gênero que já emocionou e inspirou milhões ao redor do mundo. Com 16 episódios ricamente produzidos, a obra se consolida como uma das mais ambiciosas já feitas sobre o tema, atraindo olhares não só de cinéfilos, mas também de estudiosos e curiosos que querem entender como o documentário transformou a forma de contar histórias na sétima arte.

Dirigida pelo renomado documentarista Mark Cousins — autor de obras como “The Story of Film” —, a série já conquistou mercados internacionais, como Itália e Espanha, e agora mira o público norte-americano, onde o gênero documental tem ganhado cada vez mais espaço nas telas e plataformas. Para o Brasil, país com uma rica tradição em documentários — desde os clássicos de Eduardo Coutinho até as produções contemporâneas que abordam questões sociais e culturais —, a chegada da série representa uma oportunidade de reflexão sobre o papel do gênero no cinema nacional e global, além de inspirar novas gerações de cineastas a explorar as possibilidades da não-ficção.

A expectativa é que a série estreia nos cinemas e plataformas dos EUA e Canadá em breve, abrindo caminho para debates e exibições especiais no Brasil, onde o interesse por cinema documental só cresce.