{"id":9181,"date":"2018-03-07T14:26:06","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T12:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/?p=9181"},"modified":"2018-04-09T15:08:45","modified_gmt":"2018-04-09T13:08:45","slug":"women-in-cinema-the-story-of-alice-guy-blache","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/2018\/03\/women-in-cinema-the-story-of-alice-guy-blache\/","title":{"rendered":"Women in Cinema: The Story of Alice Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"

awards circuit<\/a>\u00a0–\u00a0No quote is more appropriate to women in cinema than the one said during the trailer for\u00a0Be Natural<\/em>, the upcoming documentary detailing the life of, Alice Guy-Blache: \u201cHistory is written by men.\u201d\u00a0 This also applies to film history.\u00a0 Guy-Blache was one of the first female filmmakers to direct movies during the origins of cinema itself; she would go on to found her own studio and even run for mayor.\u00a0 Unfortunately, she\u2019s been written out of or marginalized in countless history books which creates a necessary reason for\u00a0Be Natural\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>existence.\u00a0\u00a0Be Natural<\/em>\u00a0director Pamela Green took time to talk to me about Alice and why her story is so important to reorient women in the history of film.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I first learned of Alice Guy-Blache when a comment came to me via Twitter asking if I knew\u00a0 the first female director in history.\u00a0 This is a common question Pamela Green and co-director Jarik Van Sluijs have been asking as they work through their documentary,\u00a0Be Natural<\/em>.\u00a0 While audiences today are unaware of Guy-Blache\u2019s legacy, Pamela Green has had her on the brain for 12 years since learning Guy-Blache\u2019s name during a television documentary entitled,\u00a0Reel Models: The First Women of Film<\/em>\u00a0hosted by Barbra Streisand: \u201cI happened to click on the channel and it started talking about Alice \u2013 it was a very little snippet \u2013 and I was sold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guy-Blache is a figure to aspire to for all female directors. \u00a0Guy-Blache worked on over 1000 films in her life (living from 1873-1968), and eventually created Solax Studios.\u00a0\u00a0 The creation of her own studio aside I was most fascinated by her refusal to be categorized into one genre (then again, there were no genres during this time period furthering her pioneering credibility); she wasn\u2019t going to do romances because she was a woman.\u00a0 Green ran through a brief history of the various genres Guy-Blache worked in throughout her life: \u201cshe made a religious film \u2013\u00a0The Life of Christ<\/em>\u00a0[which is] 33-minutes long in 1906.\u00a0 She made\u00a0Making an American Citizen<\/em>\u00a0about the treatment of women in the US.\u00a0 She made a film called\u00a0A Man\u2019s a Man<\/em>\u00a0where she presented Jews in a positive life.\u00a0 She adapted Edgar Allen Poe, Wilkie Collins, Emile Zola; a lot of comedies; she worked with animals.\u00a0 The body of work to be directing and the head of production is massive.\u00a0 She really explored.\u201d<\/p>\n

As with all films shot during the beginnings of movie-making, Alice\u2019s films aren\u2019t widely available.\u00a0 (You can currently watch\u00a0A Fool\u00a0\"BeNaturalMovie\"<\/a>and His Money<\/em>\u00a0on Fandor; her work will also be shown on TCM September 2nd.)\u00a0 However, it was the films that prove Guy-Blache\u2019s existence \u2013 and Green\u2019s interest in the project \u2013 and for the early 1900s Green took note of Guy-Blache\u2019s perceptiveness: \u201cI was very impressed in the way she looked at society and questioned it; she really felt there was a place for women in films and directing.\u201d\u00a0 Guy-Blache also led the way in cementing her own legacy, or at least presenting herself as a beacon to what women could accomplish in the early 1900s.\u00a0 The formation of her studio Solax has been mentioned, but she also ran for mayor and lectured at Columbia University.\u00a0 She also explored feminism \u2013 albeit the \u201cbad side\u201d \u2013 in her 1906 film,\u00a0The Consequences of Feminism<\/em>.\u00a0 The very idea that a woman was exploring social issues in a time where women weren\u2019t allowed to vote is astounding.<\/p>\n

The formation of the film industry is often cited as being created by Thomas Edison, and\/or the Lumiere Brothers.\u00a0 Even modern fans of classic films look at male stars of the silent era, such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton as \u201cforefathers\u201d to cinema and have to be reminded that \u201c[Guy-Blache] made her first film in 1896 and the ending of her career was Chaplin\u2019s beginning.\u00a0 She was early, early, early\u201d as Green was kind enough to remind me.\u00a0\u00a0Be Natural<\/em>\u00a0is an important way to showcase Alice\u2019s journey and rewrite history to favor men and woman; as Green explained, \u201cShe represents so much because she had all these different roles\u2026these layers that [make] you constantly excited all over again.\u00a0 It\u2019s this portal to take you back to this time to open up all these other Pandora Boxes that people don\u2019t know about.\u201d<\/p>\n

One question that bothers me about the struggle for\u00a0Be Natural<\/em>\u00a0success is whether Hollywood is ignoring small, female-focused films\u00a0 because of their female subject matter.\u00a0 In a time when females aren\u2019t leading films on-screen, what are the odds of a female director who lived over 100 years ago succeeding as a documentary for a national audience?\u00a0 Green doesn\u2019t place the blame on femininity, but more on audiences being disinterested in the amount of time that\u2019s elapsed: \u201cWhen you hear somebody was around 100 years ago, and was the director of her own studio people say \u2018Oh, okay, so what?\u2019\u201d\u00a0 The added hindrance is also a lack of material to watch.\u00a0 Alice\u2019s films aren\u2019t widely dispensed, and haven\u2019t benefited from a restoration or release.\u00a0 There have been various books written on Alice, and a museum exhibit \u2013 which Green found to be limited in scope \u2013 but none of those benefit from the broad-scale dissemination that a film provides.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until 2009 that a woman was able to secure the Oscar for Best Director (Kathryn Bigelow and\u00a0The Hurt Locker<\/em>).\u00a0 Women as directors have enjoyed limited success, and what success they do have isn\u2019t in blockbusters.\u00a0 I\u2019ve discussed the roles of women in particular genres, but women certainly aren\u2019t leading the march in big-budget action movies.\u00a0 For Green, storytelling is genderless: \u201cStorytelling comes from all walks of life, whether it\u2019s male or female.\u201d\u00a0 While she agrees that women are more than capable of directing action films, they aren\u2019t presented with enough opportunities to do so.\u00a0 Green believes women just need to become storytellers; instead of women refraining from directing altogether \u201cthey\u2019ll go ahead and tell stories just to tell stories if they have to do it in the independent world.\u201d\u00a0 Green does give credit to the female writers of\u00a0Harry Potter, The Hunger Games<\/em>, and\u00a0Twilight<\/em>\u00a0as evidence of a broadening world for female writers but it\u2019s a different world to write a book that can be adapted for screen, and being a woman directing the films themselves (no female directors worked on\u00a0Harry Potter<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0Hunger Games<\/em>, while only one woman shot a\u00a0Twilight<\/em>\u00a0feature).\u00a0 For Green, audiences aren\u2019t hearing about women directors enough because their work is generally resigned to the independent or international market (of which I\u2019d agree).<\/p>\n

What about Green herself, a woman successfully running her own company (she runs the Pic Agency with co-director Van Sluijs)?\u00a0 Her credits include visual effects on diverse fare like\u00a0Cabin in the Woods<\/em>,\u00a0The Kingdom<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a042<\/em>, all of which work with her desire to tell stories and evoke a certain time.\u00a0 To her, a fascinating aspect of working with Guy-Blache\u2019s story was evoking a time period and exploring who Alice was as a human being: \u201cThat is how we went about it going by certain things and deconstruct[ing] the story of what went on, so we can feel like we were there.\u00a0 She takes you back in time\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Green herself hopes to continue working, whether \u201cit\u2019s title sequences or more documentaries.\u201d\u00a0 She and Van Sluijs even have plans to do a feature-film on Alice at some point.\u00a0 Regardless, she will continue to develop her storytelling style and isn\u2019t done yet: \u201cI always tell people at the end that I\u2019ll get my detective\u2019s license and then I\u2019m done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Be Natural<\/em>\u00a0has amassed $219,263 dollars; successfully funding the remaining research but failing to achieve the extra $40,000 \u201cflex goal\u201d they had to secure licensing rights for Alice\u2019s films, as well as various books and other materials.\u00a0 Thankfully, fans continue to donate time and money, becoming a second family to the group working on the project.\u00a0 What is the next step in the story of Alice Guy-Blache?\u00a0 For\u00a0Be Natural<\/em>\u00a0it\u2019s the assembly of a rough cut: \u201cThe next step is to start building a rough cut and see if we can get access to the films.\u00a0 In addition, we need to get more financing because it\u2019s not going to be enough to continue, but the money that we\u2019re raising can allow us to get access to the films [and] look at them side-by-side.\u00a0 The media has taken note of this project (recently acquiring time on UpWorthy.com and CNN), so hopefully Alice Guy-Blache won\u2019t be limited to who will be able to enjoy it.\u00a0 I can say I know Alice Guy-Blache, and hopefully this inspires other female directors to follow their passions and enter directing.\u00a0 It\u2019s an uphill battle, but well worth it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHistory is written by men.\u201d\u00a0 This also applies to film history.\u00a0 Guy-Blache was one of the first female filmmakers to direct movies during the origins of cinema itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":9182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[846,20,90,854,11,88,17,10],"tags":[814,861,860],"class_list":["post-9181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cinema-gender","category-culture-and-literature","category-editor-selection","category-film-review","category-issues","category-slider","category-women","category-world","tag-female-filmmakers","tag-history-of-cinema","tag-pioneers-of-cinema","country-france","country-world"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9181"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9324,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9181\/revisions\/9324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}