A collection of films from an eclectic array of contributors commissioned to raise funds for the Bristol independent cinema The Cube.

As told through clips from 183 female directors, this epic history of the cinema focuses on women’s integral role in the development of film art. Using almost a thousand film extracts from thirteen decades and five continents, Mark Cousins asks how films are made, shot and edited; how stories are shaped and how movies depict life, love, politics, humour and death, all through the compelling lens of some of the world’s greatest filmmakers – all of them women.

2011 film by Mark Cousins

2016 British film directed by Mark Cousins

Through little-seen archival material and his characteristically cinematic analysis, Mark Cousins narrates the ascent of fascism in Italy and its fall-out across 1930s Europe. In The March on Rome, which is simultaneously an essay film and a historical document, Cousins contextualises history through the here and now, holding a mirror up to a political landscape marked by a creeping far right and manipulated media.

Programme made for the 50th anniversary of classic movie I Know Where I'm Going by maverick film-making duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, set on a Hebridean island and starring Dame Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey.