Alice Guy-Blaché
Women are still strugglieng to get a fair deal in Hollywood, so it’s hardly surprising that Alice was not only the first female director, she was actually the only one for about ten years. Really, she just might be the first director, as her first effort, the 1896 film The Cabbage Fairy, is considered to be the first movie with a plot. She also started her own studio, which made films that criticized the social restrictions of the time, and experimented with sound far before Hollywood did. But after her husband left her for a young actress, her success began to wane, and she never made another film. Her achievements, unlike that of her male contemporaries, have mostly been completely ignored and sidelined. But it’s never too late to bring forgotten histories to light.
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