Season 1

Five years in the making, this epic journey through film history is made up of forty "chapters" narrated by Tilda Swinton, Jane Fonda, Adjoa Andoh, Sharmila Tagore, Kerry Fox, Thandie Newton, and Debra Winger. The series follows in the footsteps of Mark Cousins's The Story of Film: An Odyssey to give us a guided tour of the art and craft of the movies. Using almost a thousand film extracts from thirteen decades and five continents, Cousins explores how films are made, shot, and edited; how stories are shaped; and how movies depict life, love, politics, humor, and death through the compelling lens of some of the world's greatest directors -- all of them women.