Film
Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché
- Director
- Pamela B. Green
- Certificate
- PG
- Running Time
- 103 mins
Previously celebrated in Bristol at last year’s Cinema Rediscovered festival, Alice Guy-Blaché was one of the first filmmakers to direct a narrative fiction film, and the first known woman filmmaker. She had a prolific career that spanned more than 25 years.
Starting as a secretary for Gaumont, she eventually became head of film production there until 1907; going on to create the highly successful Solax production company in 1910. By 1912, her rate of film production equalled that of D.W. Griffith, and her films were equally as popular. She wrote and produced more than 700 films throughout her career, making films with Gaumont’s early synchronised sound system, Chronophone, experimenting with special effects, tinting and toning colour processes, and making the first film known to have an all African-American cast, A Fool and His Money (1912).
She was awarded France’s Legion d’honneur, and became recognised by film historians including Jean Mitry and Charles Ford. She spent her later life tirelessly trying to recover her lost films. Narrated by Jodie Foster, this new documentary is a timely homage to one of film’s most negected pioneers.
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