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The Story of Looking

Name: The Story of Looking
Director: Mark Cousins
Released: 2021
Duration: 90 min

Representation Score

9.0/10

Excellent

2021

Director

Mark Cousins

Runtime

90 minutes

Average Rating

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New Showbiz Analysis

The Story of Looking is a thoughtful exploration of perception that moves beyond simple observation to connect different cultures and times through empathy. The film's strongest points lie in its treatment of disability and its promotion of a global, pluralistic worldview. By framing vision loss as a transformative intellectual experience rather than a tragedy, it offers a unique, respectful portrayal of neuro-visual changes. While it excels in representing cultural and disability issues, it remains somewhat neutral when it comes to specific LGBTQ+ and gender-based visibility.

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Category Breakdown

Does The Story of Looking have LGBTQ+ representation?

Fair

The film focuses on the shared experience of sight and emotions, avoiding assumptions that everyone is straight or cisgender. However, it doesn't show specific LGBTQ+ identities or non-traditional gender expressions.

How does The Story of Looking portray gender?

Good

The movie challenges the typical male-dominated viewpoint by emphasizing empathy instead of dominance. It does this by showing the director's vulnerability about his upcoming surgery.

How racially and ethnically diverse is The Story of Looking?

Excellent

By showcasing a wide range of images from different cultures, the film gives significant importance to non-Western artistic traditions and global viewpoints.

How does The Story of Looking represent religion and culture?

Good

The film promotes a diverse, global perspective through a secular, humanist lens. It focuses on empathy and discovery rather than religious doctrine, treating truth as a matter of individual perspective.

Does The Story of Looking include disability representation?

Excellent

Focusing on the director's impending vision loss, the film avoids pity or inspirational stories. Instead, it presents disability as a profound change in perspective and intellectual curiosity.

Present on Screen

Provides a unique and respectful portrayal of disability through intellectual depth.
Successfully deconstructs Eurocentric visual traditions in favor of global imagery.
Promotes empathy and cross-cultural understanding through a humanist approach.

Limited or Absent

Does not include explicit representations of LGBTQ+ identities or non-traditional gender expressions.
Focuses on universal themes which may overlook specific multi-layered identity politics.

Official Synopsis

As he prepares for surgery to restore his vision, Mark Cousins explores the role that 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, a kaleidoscope of extraordinary imagery across cultures and eras. At a time when we are more assailed by images than ever, he reveals how looking makes us who we are, lying at the heart of the human experience, empathy, discovery and thought. He shares the pleasure and pain of seeing the world, in all its complexity and contradiction, with eyes wide open. As the COVID-19 pandemic brings another dramatic shift of perspective, he reaches out to the other lookers for their vision from lockdown, and he travels to the future to consider how his looking life will continue to develop until the very end.

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