Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché

United States of America, 2020

Film
Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché thumbnail image.

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The epic life story of Alice Guy-Blaché (1873–1968), a French screenwriter, director and producer, true pioneer of cinema, the first person who made a narrative fiction film; author of hundreds of movies, but banished from history books. Ignored and forgotten. At last remembered.

Curator Notes

In her luminous and illuminating documentary, Pamela B. Green effectively rewrites history by examining the life of one of the great pioneers of cinema who was curiously left out of the history books.

With a career spanning three decades, operations spanning two continents and a creative output of over a thousand films Guy-Blaché was enormously productive and incredibly savvy. Aside from this, though, her works displayed an emotional impact and narrative complexity that stood out amongst the early factual spectacles of the era – in fact, it is said that she invented narrative cinema.

Filmmakers including Patty Jenkins, Diablo Cody, Julie Delpy, Ava DuVernay and narrator Jodie Foster frame this amazing life story which colours-in some much-needed detail of this otherwise hazy chapter of cinema.

– Reece Goodwin, Curator (TV & Special Events)

Learn more

WATCH: Jodie Foster & Pamela B. Green on the Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché
NYFF56, Film at Lincoln Center, 26 Oct 2018

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How to watch

Rent at Cinema 3

cinema3.acmi.net.au

Collection

Not in ACMI's collection

Credits

director

Pamela B. Green

producer

Pamela B. Green

production company

Artemis Rising

writer

Pamela B. Green

Duration

01:43:00

Production places
United States of America
Production dates
2020 2018

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

tmdb-movie-520270

Language

English

Audience classification

G

Subject categories

Documentary

History

TMDB-Movie

520270

Wikidata

Q56886861

Collected

48 times

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/62153--be-natural-the-untold-story-of-alice-guy-blache/ |title=Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=6 May 2025 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}