Be Natural: The untold story of Alice Guy-Blaché.

This is a movie, narrated by Jodie Foster, produced by Robert Redford, directed by Pamela Green and Jarik van Sluijs, about the first woman director ever. She made the first narrative film ever. She also invented movie stars. Oh, and the thing where you have sound? She was the first to use synchronized sound. She did a lot of things first, and no one has ever heard of her. Many of her films were destroyed, others misattributed to others. This is one of the most amazing stories of modern culture I've ever seen. Can't wait 'till the actual film comes out.

More information is here and here.

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Another story that shows the equal treatment of women by our 'man centered' society. It has been demonstrated so much that when I hear of some male getting credit for something my 1st question is 'who is the woman that did all the hard word?'

Wow - hope it makes it here to the hinterlands. The Library of Congress just released a study that says nearly 75% of all silent films produced by major studios during that era have been lost or destroyed due to accident and negligence.

"Only 14% of the 10,919 silent films released by major studios exist in their original 35mm or other format, according to the report, “The Survival of American Silent Feature Films: 1912-1929.” Another 11% survive in full-length foreign versions or on film formats of lesser image quality."

And that's major studios - I would presume that from the less well know studios that number would be in the high 90s.

Damn tragedy

By Doug Alder (not verified) on 08 Dec 2013 #permalink

I read somewhere that in the very early years of film, in order to copyright your work each frame needed to be transferred to paper. That's why, it is said, there are more films from the very early era than later on when the only stock film was on was nitrate. Basically dynamite.

By Richard Chapman (not verified) on 08 Dec 2013 #permalink

Thank you for the mention !

By Pamela green (not verified) on 08 Dec 2013 #permalink

How come we know nothing about this woman until now? I'm scared to think that she was forgotten because she was a woman. I'm glad she is finally remembered now.