Alice Guy Blache - by Alison McMahan (Paperback)

About the Book

Alice Guy BlachT (1873-1968), the world's first woman filmmaker, was one of the key figures in the development of narrative film. From 1896 to 1920 she directed 400 films (including over 100 synchronized sound films), produced hundreds more, and was the first--and so far the only--woman to own and run her own studio plant (The Solax Studio in Fort Lee, NJ, 1910-1914). However, her role in film history was completely forgotten until her own memoirs were published in 1976. This new book tells her life story and fills in many gaps left by the memoirs. Guy BlachT's life and career mirrored momentous changes in the film industry, and the long time-span and sheer volume of her output makes her films a fertile territory for the application of new theories of cinema history, the development of film narrative, and feminist film theory. The book provides a close analysis of the one hundred Guy BlachT films that survive, and in the process rewrites early cinema history.

Book Synopsis

Alice Guy BlachT (1873-1968), the world's first woman filmmaker, was one of the key figures in the development of narrative film. From 1896 to 1920 she directed 400 films (including over 100 synchronized sound films), produced hundreds more, and was the first--and so far the only--woman to own and run her own studio plant (The Solax Studio in Fort Lee, NJ, 1910-1914). However, her role in film history was completely forgotten until her own memoirs were published in 1976. This new book tells her life story and fills in many gaps left by the memoirs. Guy BlachT's life and career mirrored momentous changes in the film industry, and the long time-span and sheer volume of her output makes her films a fertile territory for the application of new theories of cinema history, the development of film narrative, and feminist film theory. The book provides a close analysis of the one hundred Guy BlachT films that survive, and in the process rewrites early cinema history.

Review Quotes

'An obsessively detailed history of a true motion-picture pioneer.' American Cinematographer

'McMahan has done a monumental job of excavation to locate her subject's place in the history of the cinema A major feat of enlightened - and enlightening - scholarship.' Los Angeles Times

"An obsessively detailed history of a true motion-picture pioneer."

About the Author

Alison McMahan is an award-winning screenwriter, author, and filmmaker. She was the president of Homunculus Productions, LLC, from 2006 to 2025. Her best known film is Bare Hands and Wooden Limbs (2010) narrated by Sam Waterston. McMahan is a two-time Derringer Award nominee and an "Other Distinguished Mystery Stories" author in Best American Mystery Stories of 2018. Her short mysteries have appeared in numerous mystery anthologies and ThrillRide magazine. One of her non-fiction books, Alice Guy Blaché, Lost Visionary of the Cinema (Bloomsbury 2002) was translated into Japanese and Spanish and adapted into the documentary, Be Natural (2018).