Alice Guy-Blaché

Producer, Screenwriter, Director (1873–1968)

An early 20th century filmmaking pioneer and one of the first to make a narrative fiction film, Alice Guy-Blaché made more than 1,000 films and ran her own film studio in New Jersey, experimenting with sound syncing, color tinting, interracial casting and special effects.

• She experimented with sound syncing, color tinting, interracial casting and special effects long before the recognized giants of early cinema had even begun

• At 21, she joined a still-photography company as secretary to Léon Gaumont,

• end of the 19th century—she was witness to a demonstration of an early 60mm motion-picture camera, to which Gaumont subsequently secured rights.

• When Gaumont and Guy attended a private screening—the screen being a piece of paper—of some footage shot by the Lumière brothers on their new 35mm camera, Guy was inspired to ask Gaumont if she could use their camera to film a story.

• In 1896, Guy wrote, produced and directed her first film, The Cabbage Fairy (La Fée aux choux), on the back patio of the Gaumont laboratories, incorporating special-effects techniques she learned from still photographer Frédéric Dillaye. 

• enthusiastically embracing the medium to churn out hundreds of short films while working with Gaumont, who made her head of production