#TimesUp on Alice Guy-Blaché’s contributions to cinema being overlooked, underestimated, and forgotten. “Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché” tells the story of the first female filmmaker. A new trailer has dropped for Pamela B. Green’s documentary, and it sees Green trying to make sense of the fact that she’d never heard of Guy-Blaché, who, among many other remarkable achievements, wrote, directed, and produced one of the first narrative films ever made.
“I was determined to do something about it,” Green says in the spot. She was determined to pay tribute to a pioneering artist — one who blazed trails for all filmmakers, not just women. “I was first moved to begin production on this film as I was watching AMC and discovered a show called ‘Reel Models’ about pioneering women in cinema, including Alice Guy-Blaché. I didn’t go to film school, but I work in the entertainment industry and I was surprised that I had never heard of her,” Green told us. “I asked several people and I realized that they too had never heard of her. I just kept asking, ‘How could such an important figure in the birth of cinema be unknown?’ It became clear I had to tell her story.”
Narrated by Oscar winner Jodie Foster, “Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché” made its world premiere at Cannes 2018. The doc features interviews with Patty Jenkins, Ava DuVernay, and Diablo Cody, among others.
According to the film’s synopsis, “Be Natural” “explores the heights of fame and financial success [Guy-Blaché] achieved before she was shut out from the very industry she helped create. Over the span of her career, she wrote, produced or directed 1,000 films, including 150 with synchronized sound during the ‘silent’ era. Her work includes comedies, westerns and dramas, as well as films with groundbreaking subject matter such as child abuse, immigration, Planned Parenthood, and female empowerment. She also etched a place in history by making the earliest known surviving narrative film with an all-African American cast.”
“Be Natural” opens April 19 in LA and April 26 in NY with a nationwide release to follow.
