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Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy Blaché

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2019
4:15 pm - 6:00 pm
Category
Film Festival
Film Type
Documentary
Cost
$10 / $8 / $5
Location
Main Street Landing Film House
60 Lake Street, 3rd floor
Burlington, VT

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Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy Blaché
Directed by Pamela B. Green
USA | 2019 | Documentary | 102 min
Film Source: Zeitgeist Films
Awards/premier festivals: Cannes, Telluride, New York, Deauville
Sponsors: VTIFF Board of Directors in honor of Orly Yadin, Executive Director of VTIFF 

One of the most influential and innovative directors of the silent era, Alice Guy-Blaché was the first female filmmaker. In 1896, at age 23, she was inspired to make her own film called La Fée aux Choux (The Cabbage Fairy), one of the first narrative films ever made. Over the span of her career, she wrote, produced or directed hundreds of films, including 150 with synchronized sound during the silent era. Her work includes comedies, westerns and dramas, as well as films with groundbreaking subject matter such as child abuse, immigration, birth control and female empowerment. She also etched a place in history by making the earliest known surviving narrative film with an all-black cast. After a decade of making films at Gaumont in Paris, she had a second decade-long career in the U.S., where she built and ran her own studio, Solax, in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Green organizes her film like a detective story, tracking down every U.S.-based connection she can find via Ancestry.com and the phone directory. Green’s approach distinguishes this film from earlier documentaries made about Guy-Blaché, unearthing materials hidden in family albums and storage cartons. ~OY