Directed by Marquise Lepage |
Canada, 1995 (documentary, 53 minutes, colour / black and white, French) |
Also known as "The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blaché" |
Image: © National Film Board of Canada |
Video (National Film Board of Canada)
Video (National Film Board of Canada) [French] |
Film Description [in French] : "Un documentaire qui réhabilite la mémoire de la première femme cinéaste au monde, morte oubliée de tous, au New Jersey, en 1968, à l'âge de 95 ans. Le film reconstitue l'univers de cette femme remarquable grâce à des entrevues réalisées par les télévisions européennes autour des années 60, des extraits de ses films, des archives familiales, des témoignages de personnes qui l'ont connue, d'universitaires et d'historiens du cinéma." -- Office national du film du Canada (source)
Film Description: |
Film Credits (partial): | |
Written by: | Marquise Lepage |
Produced by: | Josée Beaudet |
Participants: | Adrienne Blaché-Channing, Roberta Blaché, Nicolas Seydoux, André Gaudreault, Alan Williams, Alison McMahan, Anthony Slide |
Film Editing: | France Pilon |
Music: | Robert M. Lepage |
Production Company: | Office national du film du Canada / National Film Board of Canada |
"Hold onto your hats, all you Hollywood guys. According to the informative documentary, The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blaché, the first person ever to direct a fictional film was a woman. Alice Guy-Blaché's 1896 short, The Cabbage Fairy, preceded the early narrative films of Georges Méliès by several months. Between 1896 and 1913, Guy-Blaché wrote, directed and produced more than 700 pictures. In 1953, she was awarded the Legion of Honor medal by the French government. Yet, as Marquise Lepage's film shows us, she has been almost totally erased from cinema history. Lepage doesn't push the gender angle. She doesn't have to; the facts speak for themselves."
-- Eleanor Ringel
(source)