This programme asks how some of the world’s greatest women directors establish a tone, convey believability, and introduce their characters. 'Women Make Film I' features screenings of five chapters from Mark Cousin’s documentary Women Make Film.

‘Opening’ looks at how to open a film with examples from 1943 to 2016, from China to France, Finland to Argentina, Next, ‘Tone’ explores how directors set the personality of their works, whether delightful, angry, poetic, edgy, violent, profound, or caring.

Chapter three, ‘Believability’, is about simple human stories, the truth about life, genuine emotions, and responses to the world. In ‘Introducing Characters’, Cousins explores how directors use various ways to introduce characters by shaping the audience’s subconscious judgment through dialogue or action. Finally, ‘Meet Cute’ looks at unique examples—from intimate glimpses to worlds colliding spectacularly between two characters—of the classic Hollywood trope.

Mark Cousins (b. 1965, England) is a filmmaker, critic, and programmer based in Edinburgh. He is known for The First Movie (2009), The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011), A Story of Children and Film (2013) and The Eyes of Orson Welles (2018). He is the co-founder with Tilda Swinton of the 8½ Foundation.