The Story of Looking

2021

1 hr. 30 min.

Documentary

List

89%

18 Reviews

Tomatometer

On the day before an operation to save his eyesight, Mark explores what looking means to him, and the role our visual experience plays in our individual and collective lives. In a deeply personal meditation on the power of looking in his own life, he guides us through the riches of the visible world, through a kaleidoscope of imagery across cultures and eras, drawing on art history, biology, neuroscience, psychology, poetry and philosophy. As he goes under the surgeon's knife, he suggests that we are in the midst of a looking revolution more powerful than any which has gone before, which has the potential to change the world -- for better or for worse. At a time when we are more assailed by images than ever, when the value of looking is increasingly under question, he reveals how looking makes us who we are, lying at the heart of human experience, of empathy, discovery and thought. He shares the pleasures of seeing the world, in all its complexity and contradiction, with eyes wide open. And as the Covid-19 pandemic brings another dramatic shift of perspective, he reaches out to other lookers for their vision from lockdown. And in a startling final shift, he travels to the future to consider how his looking life will continue to develop until the very end.

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Chad G

A beautifully filmed and lovely written image-word poem to conflicted yet compelling place. The tone is not didactic, but transcendent, and while there is nowhere like Belfast, this film's stories and humble and honest observations of its history and inhabitants - good and bad - shed light on all places in the world where we humans congregate. But this only becomes clear through the otherworldly, always curious and ever loving voice of Mark Cousins.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

08/26/22

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Mark Cousins

Director

Mark Cousins

Self

Mary Bell

Producer

Adam Dawtrey

Producer

Mark Cousins

Screenwriter

Mark Thomas

Executive Producer

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Ian Freer

Empire Magazine

A persuasive argument that we see differently in different stages of our lives.The Story Of Looking isfascinating,thought-provoking stuff,told in Cousins' engaging, typically impish way.

Rated: 4/5

Sep 18, 2021

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Donald Clarke

Irish Times

Another oddball pleasure from an utter original.

Rated: 4/5

Sep 17, 2021

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Kevin Maher

Times (UK)

Typically accomplished work.

Rated: 3/5

Sep 17, 2021

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Javier Ocaña

El Pais (Spain)

Captivating and hypnotic... [Full review in Spanish]

Jun 15, 2022

Full Review

Laurence Boyce

VODzilla.co

Mark Cousins’ beautiful, moving and inventive exploration of how we see is his most personal film to date.

Rated: 4/5

May 5, 2022

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Alan French

We Live Entertainment

To elucidate his fears about losing his vision, Cousins expertly recreates his nightmarish reality for us.

Rated: 7/10

Nov 18, 2021

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Synopsis

On the day before an operation to save his eyesight, Mark explores what looking means to him, and the role our visual experience plays in our individual and collective lives. In a deeply personal meditation on the power of looking in his own life, he guides us through the riches of the visible world, through a kaleidoscope of imagery across cultures and eras, drawing on art history, biology, neuroscience, psychology, poetry and philosophy. As he goes under the surgeon's knife, he suggests that we are in the midst of a looking revolution more powerful than any which has gone before, which has the potential to change the world -- for better or for worse. At a time when we are more assailed by images than ever, when the value of looking is increasingly under question, he reveals how looking makes us who we are, lying at the heart of human experience, of empathy, discovery and thought. He shares the pleasures of seeing the world, in all its complexity and contradiction, with eyes wide open. And as the Covid-19 pandemic brings another dramatic shift of perspective, he reaches out to other lookers for their vision from lockdown. And in a startling final shift, he travels to the future to consider how his looking life will continue to develop until the very end.

Director: Mark Cousins
Executive Producer: Mark Thomas, Catherine Benkaim, Barbara Timmer
Screenwriter: Mark Cousins
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 2, 2023