I
knew who Alice Guy-Blaché (the first woman film director, for most
intents and purposes) was when I was a little kid. She's mentioned in Scream Queens: Heroines of the Horrors by Calvin Thomas Beck, a cheap, popular-press book I received for Christmas when I was eight years old. So it surprises me
that many scholars interviewed in the fine documentary Be Natural: The
Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché (Pamela B. Green, 2018) claim to have
never heard of her. For sure, the film concerns the historical (i.e.,
sexist) processes that have rendered her far more obscure than Méliès or
the Lumières. But am I jerk to assume scholars should know full well
who she was? Anyhoo, the film is part investigative journalism, part
just-plain-useful history, and captivating all throughout. A must-see
portrait of one of the key innovators of cinema.
Labels: Alice Guy-Blaché, history, women in film
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