Jordan Peele’s Nope packed a lot of themes into its 2-hour 10-minute runtime. Some themes were more obvious (human attempts to control uncontrollable forces), while others were more subtextual (filmmaking as a tool to shape our understanding of cultures). Like any good film, different themes will resonate with different people for different reasons. Various perspectives and takeaways further fuel the post-screening conversation, which can lead to a broadening of world views or start a fiery discourse on #FilmTwitter. Either way, there is a passion that lingers with the audience because, in one way or another, they have been affected by what they saw on screen. That’s the power that Jordan Peele and countless other filmmakers harness when they make a movie.

This effect that cinema has on us is at the heart of filmmaker and critic Mark Cousins’ epic documentary, The Story of Film: A New Generation. With a runtime of just under 3 hours, Cousins follows up his previously released miniseries The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011) by compiling some of the best moments in film history to prove how cinema is continuing to innovate year after year.

The film pays homage to legends of the past by opening with a beautiful monologue praising Singin’ in the Rain‘s Stanley Donen, The Piano‘s Jane Campion, Varda par Agnès’ Agnès Varda, and other auteurs we cinephiles hold in high regard. “Who are their equivalents in the 21st Century?” Cousins asks somewhat rhetorically, as we revisit clips and scenes from some of the most revered classic and contemporary films of all time. 

Cousins’ main thesis statement is expressed by showing how different film genres have evolved over time. The structure of modern Musicals, Slow Cinema, and Action films are compared to films of the past, proving that filmmakers are not reinventing the wheel as much as they are building upon it. It can be argued that George Miller’s Mad Max took inspiration from Buster Keaton’s The General. Todd Phillips’ Joker is more similar to Disney’s Frozen than ever imagined. Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cemetery of Splendor and Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women tell the same tale, through different lenses.

Cinema is always finding new ways of reinventing itself. Whether it be visually with the integration of sophisticated AI as seen in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, or thematically by breaking the rules of genre like Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin – which blended the boundaries between documentary and narrative – The Story of Film: A New Generation proves that film is not dead.

The Story of Film: A New Generation is now playing in New York, Los Angeles, and select additional cities, followed by a digital release on all major platforms on Tuesday, September 20. This compelling new documentary will arrive on DVD on Tuesday, October 18.