forgotten women of film herstory--alice guy

Forgotten Women of Film History: Alice Guy




Spielberg. Scorsese. Tarantino. Lucas. Hitchcock. When we think of filmmakers, we often think of men. It’s not surprising, considering a recent study by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film found women account for only 16 percent of directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors and cinematographers working on the top films.

But the film industry wasn’t always male-dominated. In the early days of film, women furthered the advancement of the then-new art form (and later, the industry), contributing generously to behind-the-scenes fields such as directing, screenwriting and editing, and innovating visual narrative techniques filmmakers still use today.

This series, “Forgotten Women of Film History,” seeks to celebrate the women behind the camera, without whose imagination, determination and passion for storytelling, movies as we know them would not exist, but whose contributions remain universally unknown and often willfully forgotten by audiences and industry alike.

First up: Alice Guy (who later hyphenated her name to include her married name, Blaché), born July 1, 1873 in Paris, France and died March 24, 1968 in Wayne, New Jersey. Guy was the first-ever woman film director and was one of the first filmmakers ever to sync picture and sound (long before “talkies” became all the rage in 1927). Guy also pioneered visual storytelling techniques such as split-screen, double exposure and the dramatic close-up, and even helped shape film acting technique by asking her performers to give a more naturalistic delivery, reminding them to “be natural” via a large sign hanging in her studio.
Yes, her studio. Guy was the first woman ever to own and manage her own film studio, The Solax Company, in Fort Lee, New Jersey, the largest pre-Hollywood production house of its kind.
Did I mention she’s also credited with making the earliest-known film featuring an all-African American cast (1912’s A Fool and His Money)?

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http://msmagazine.com/blog/2014/10/03/forgotten-women-of-film-history-alice-guy/