Mark Cousins’ epic documentary, executive produced by Tilda Swinton and Clara Glynn, offers a completely fresh take on film history, exploring the development of the medium exclusively through work directed by women. The first of five programmes explores how directors achieve tone, introduce characters, capture conversations and handle framing and tracking shots. The examples used range across the decades and around the globe, including the pioneering Hollywood director Dorothy Arzner, Elaine May, Agnès Varda, Vĕra Chytilová, Maren Ade and Yuliya Solntseva.