Pamela B. Green's "Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché"
There is a scene early in this remarkable documentary where we see a clip from one of Guy-Blaché’s early films, dating back to around 1895 or 1896. In the scene, a laughing woman strolls through a cabbage patch, bending down to pluck live babies one by one from behind the cabbages. The whimsy and humor of the moment are so striking that you can’t help but wonder what audiences of that time—just being introduced to the miracle of motion pictures—must have thought upon seeing it for the first time.
The director of that film went on to become one of the founders of the motion picture industry. Over the course of this documentary, we learn about the details of her life, the development of the film industry, and, most significantly, why we’ve never heard about this pioneering woman.
The amount of research behind this film is amazing. How it was produced could easily be the subject of another documentary. Fortunately, much of that work is described here—not to show off the effort behind the production but to address the central question: why haven’t we heard of this woman before?
The easy answer, of course, is, “because she was a woman in an industry eventually dominated by businessmen.”
That’s only part of the story. We’ve all heard the phrase, “history is written by the victors.” This film provides perfect examples of that. Early histories of the motion picture industry often got the details wrong by attributing Guy-Blaché’s work to others or by ignoring her contributions entirely. Over time, these errors compounded. Additionally, most physical copies of her work have been lost or are now prohibitively expensive or nearly impossible to restore due to the deterioration of early media.
My only complaint with this film is the excessive use of graphic detail and animation to illustrate the research process. It occasionally makes it difficult to stay grounded in the era being discussed.
However, this is a minor issue. The history presented here is substantial and will fascinate anyone interested in motion picture history, women in industry, and the research process itself. Highly recommended.
Copyright (c) 2024 by Dennis D. McDonald
