An Afternoon with Alice Guy-Blache, Pioneering Film Director
Join us for another in the Extraordinary Women Series presented by Back Lane Studios at the Revue Cinema. One of our foremost early cinema experts Prof. Charlie Keil will introduce the NFB documentary The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blache and take part in a discussion about this largely forgotten filmmaking pioneer.
Alice Guy-Blache, 1873-1968, was an important player when the movie-making business first emerged, producing some 1,000 films and heading her own studio — unusual accomplishments for a woman, even now. She started out as a secretary, having learned typing and shorthand, at a camera manufacturing company in France.
In 1895, she saw a demonstration of film technology by the Lumiere brothers and had a brilliant idea: Why not tell a story in moving pictures? The next year, she became the first person in the world to write and direct a narrative film.
Guy-Blache was a visionary and innovator, promoting a natural style of acting and working with synchronized sound and colour. Prof. Keil, who teaches at U of T and is principal of Innis College, will help us understand her contributions to the art and business of the movies and why she may have been written out of cinema history for so long.
Tickets: On Eventbrite: $13.
At the Door: $15 general admission; $13 seniors, students and Revue Cinema members.
The screening is a fundraiser for not-for-profit Back Lane Studios' video-making programs for students and seniors.