Event #1 / Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blanche

            The first event that I attended was the LACMA group live stream of the film: Be Natural -Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blanche. In this eye-opening documentary directed by Pamela Green and Vanessa Schwartz, the film captures the hidden, yet astonishing life of Alice Guy-Blance and her role in reshaping how women directors and producers are viewed in the film industry through her silent, black and white films in the early 1900s.       

            Born in 1873, Alice Blanche was raised in a middle-class family that suffered a variety of setbacks including the passing of her father and siblings due to the smallpox epidemic and financial hardships being raised by a single mother. However, much of this changed when she went to work for a man named Felix-Max Richard in Paris, France. Felix-Max Richard was a camera manufacturer and repairman who really shaped Alice's view of on-camera work and film and acted as a guiding mentor and strong supporter for much of her start in her career. As an artist myself, I truly know how important it is to have a strong mentor support you and take care of you as you make a name for yourself.

As her fame around Paris started to slowly rise, she would soon realize that being a woman in film production was much harder than she would ever imagine. Many film executives often talked down her ability to direct and even prevented funding her films due to the sexism and stigmatization women faced when trying to create their own career. Despite a variety of hurdles and setbacks throughout her life, she trail-blazed her own path and created breathtaking short films including Les Resultats Du Feminisme, Falling Leaves, and The Ocean Wolf. Although sources are limited, many researchers predict that she has created over 500 short films with 100 known for certain.

In the end, I would give this documentary a 9/10 due to the rawness, descriptive narration, and overall presentation quality displayed this afternoon. I would also strongly recommend that other students take the time and watch her film as it goes hand in hand with week 1's material of art's two cultures. A few take aways from the film would include the importance of finding a mentor early on in your career and to never let people define who you are.

LACMA Film Link: To view, go to: link - Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché

Works Cited

Dargis, Manohla. “Overlooked No More: Alice Guy Blaché, the World's First Female Filmmaker.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Sept. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/obituaries/alice-guy-blache-overlooked.html.

Green, Pamela. “Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 7 Dec. 2018, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3146022/.

Guy, Alice. “La Fée Aux Choux.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 31 Mar. 1896, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0223341/.

Guy-Blache, Alice. “The Consequences of Feminism (1906).” ‎The Consequences of Feminism (1906) Directed by Alice Guy-Blaché • Reviews, Film + Cast • Letterboxd, https://letterboxd.com/film/the-consequences-of-feminism/.

Kizirian, Shari. San Francisco Silent Film Festival, https://silentfilm.org/the-solax-films-of-alice-guy-blache/.

Merin, Jennifer. “Spotlght March 2021: Alice Guy-Blaché, Pioneering Filmmaker, Studio Founder and Iconic Cinema Influencer.” ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS, 28 Feb. 2021, https://awfj.org/blog/2021/02/27/spotlght-march-2021-alice-guy-blache-pioneering-filmmaker-studio-founder-and-iconic-cinema-influencer/.

Paranick, Amber. “Alice Guy-Blaché: Cinema's First Woman Director in Newspapers.” Alice Guy-Blaché: Cinema's First Woman Director in Newspapers | Headlines and Heroes, 26 Jan. 2022, https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2022/01/alice-guy-blache/.

Green, Pamela. “Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 7 Dec. 2018, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3146022/.