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Image from Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice-Guy Blanche website
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Alice Guy-Blanche was effectively wiped clean from cinematic history - until Be
Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blance came to light. Watching this event
over this past weekend was incredible. As a woman in the arts, this experience
was especially touching and inspiring, watching how many barriers were broken
only to be hidden from the spotlight. Watching this surprisingly helped me
understand the concept of two cultures, as we discussed in class week 1, a
little more fully, specifically in regards to creativity in connection to the
article by David Bohm we had read. Alice Guy started out as a 22 year old
secretary for Gaumont, in an era where inventors and creators across the country
were fighting to pioneer motion graphics, and witnessed the “Birth of Cinema ''
courtesy of the Lumier brothers at his (Gaumont’s) side. Inspired by the
brothers, Alice posed the question that if we can use film to document regular
life, why can’t we use it to tell stories? And so, Guy writes, directs, and
produces one of the first narrative films ever made. She also became the first
to utilize close-ups, synchronized sound, and other aspects of art that had been
untouched. Is that not the clearest definition of creativity? Of the
intertwining of two cultures; motion graphics and technological advancement
paired with creative storytelling? A direct quote from Bohm’s abstract
immediately came to mind when learning about Guy, where he states, “...By
eliminating many of the generally accepted but superficial answers to these
questions, one soon discovers that a scientist is seeking to learn something
different from what can be inferred from previous knowledge, something leading
ultimately to a new perception of the wholeness, beauty and harmony in the order
and structure of natural process”. I believe Alice Guy-Blanche is a scientist
for that reason.
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Image from the official Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice-Guy Blanche trailer
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I would wholeheartedly recommend this event to my classmates.
Watching a specific segment of this piece really struck a chord, where all of
these experienced and renowned creators in the field were in a compilation of
saying they had never heard of Alice Guy-Blanche. I was shocked, but it felt
like a call to action. Education is such a powerful tool, honoring those at the
foundations of your craft is critical to building a future for that industry,
and I think everyone deserves to experience such a wake-up call. The only way to
know where you’re going is to know where you’ve been, and I think this film has
done that wonderfully in a way that encourages the future to step forward, while
holding the hands of icons like Blanche, along the way.
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| Image from the official Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice-Guy Blanche film |
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