31/03/2025 - The revered Northern Irish helmer's conversation with Toronto programmer Thom Powers sparked a broader reflection on tech and imagination

Mark Cousins (left) and Thom Powers during the talk (© Joakim Züger/CPH:DOX)

On 27 March, CPH:DOX hosted a Morning Talk with revered Northern Irish documentary filmmaker Mark Cousins, moderated by Toronto programmer Thom Powers. Cousins touched on a number of subjects, including his next endeavour, technology, creativity and the use of AI.

While researching Story of Documentary Film, his latest project pitched at CPH:FORUM (see the news), Cousins turned to ChatGPT for a basic overview of documentary history. What he got in return, he claimed, was not just an answer, but “an exact summary” of a book he co-authored with Kevin Macdonald nearly 30 years ago. “It had scraped my book and then just spat it out at me,” he recalled during the lively 80-minute conversation. Cousins, amused but concerned, admitted he didn’t fully grasp how AI functions, but said he watches its progress “with fascination and horror”.

That book, Imagining Reality: The Faber Book of Documentary, co-edited with Macdonald, was first published in 1996. Though initially unsettled by the AI-generated response, Cousins acknowledged the tech’s potential upsides. “If modern technology can help me discover great Egyptian films from the 1970s quickly, that’s good,” he noted.

However, he insisted that certain creative instincts remain outside AI’s reach. Referring to a transition in his new film from an Indian documentary to Taxi Driver, he asked rhetorically, “Would AI make that leap? I don’t think so.” That moment, he suggested, illustrated the imaginative thinking that machines still lack. “That’s called creativity. We shall see,” he said.

Cousins hinted that the film may premiere at a major festival – possibly Cannes – although he stopped short of confirming anything. “We want to make a big splash,” he said, expressing hope that the film will serve as a lasting educational tool. The idea stemmed from a suggestion by producer John Archer, of Hopscotch Films, who encouraged a global history of documentary grounded in their established ethos: “Passionately international, passionately feminist.”

In his view, the documentary form is more vital than ever amid what he called a “rightward drift” in contemporary politics. “The further that drift happens, the more we need a reality-seeking missile,” he said.

The conversation later ventured into current affairs. Cousins didn’t mince words when reacting to the arrest of No Other Land [+see also:
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Always outspoken, Cousins also took aim at the overuse of drone shots. “God, if I see another,” he quipped. “Death to drone shots, that’s what I say.” He lamented the fact that easier access to technology has resulted in “more crap documentaries”, arguing that not everyone can tell a compelling story. “People say they’re making a film about their granny. I’m sure she’s interesting, but you didn’t capture that.”

Cousins drew on his encyclopaedic knowledge of the form, referencing Kamran Shirdel’s 1967 film The Night It Rained, Zelimir Zelnik’s 1994 work Tito’s Second Time Among the Serbs and the work of Ella Bergmann-Michel, a lesser-known contemporary of Leni Riefenstahl.

All in all, Cousins’ reflections served as both a sharp critique of modern tools and a passionate defence of the unpredictable, human core of filmmaking.