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Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché

Play trailer 2:25 Poster for Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché 2019 1h 43m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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96% Tomatometer 89 Reviews 96% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
The life and work of the first female film director.
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Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché

Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché

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Critics Consensus

Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché aims an overdue spotlight on a cinematic innovator's career, with the added benefit of absorbing historical context.

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Critics Reviews

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Kathleen Sachs Chicago Reader 03/25/2020
It's the awkward editing, superfluous celebrity interviews, and an emphasis on the search for inconsequential facts that obscure what should be its focus - Guy-Blaché's formidable talent. Go to Full Review
Kevin Maher The Times (UK) 01/17/2020
4/5
Cineastes, film nerds and feminists alike will be gripped by this documentary portrait of Alice Guy-Blaché. Who? That's the point. Go to Full Review
Danny Leigh Financial Times 01/15/2020
4/5
A playful but ardent documentary tribute to Guy Blaché, a film-maker fully deserving the overworked title of pioneer. Go to Full Review
Annlee Ellingson CineWomen 08/17/2022
Narrated by Jodie Foster, the film is constructed like a mystery, with [director Pamela B.] Green, mortified that she’d never heard Guy-Blaché, setting out to piece together the remnants of the filmmaker’s legacy. Go to Full Review
Daisy Leigh-Phippard Screen Queens 02/21/2022
Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except backwards and in heels. Alice didit in corsets and with no clear rules about how to even go about creating cinema. Businesswoman and artist both, the first female filmmaker is revealed in full glory. Go to Full Review
Cate Marquis AWFJ.org 10/13/2021
Presented in a visually lively style, Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy Blache goes way beyond merely chronicling the facts of Alice Guy Blache's life... Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Ella W @ellawyatt Dec 11 Be Natural was incredibly meaningful because it revealed the frequently forgotten legacy of Alice Guy-Blaché, an early woman filmmaker whose contributions to cinema were groundbreaking yet not often talked about. Learning that she was one of the first filmmakers to dive into narrative, before many of the men we typically see credited, completely changed my understanding of early film history. Overall, I found this film really inspiring because it showed how reclaiming women's stories can change the depiction of history and give credit to the women who truly shaped the foundations of their fields. See more Ella X @ellaxu Dec 11 These stories of early women filmmakers need to be told, and this documentary does a wonderful job in spreading awareness of Alice Guy-Blache's work! Her backstory illustrates her hard work and the conditions of the film industry as it shifted into force women out; her unique approach to creating films and to have actors "be natural" makes her an outstanding filmmaker. The documentary did well in providing background information about Guy-Blache and showing the journey to recovering her filmmaking history. See more Miya H @miyahansen Dec 10 Be Natural is an engaging documentary that uses a detective style story telling to inform the viewer about Alice Guy-Blache. It brought her name back to the light it belongs, as the first female film director. Her story and this documentary is very meaningful, as much of her work has been credited to male directors. See more Condoleezza B @Condoleezza_Brew Dec 10 It was really interesting to see how the film captured the evolution of the film industry, how it began and how the industry ended up being deeply embedded in capitalistic culture. It also did a good job of incoorperating who Alice Guy-Blache was and how others percieved her, highlighting some of memorable films she made with the help of her crew. There is a perfect combination of mystery, amazement and exploration that keeps the audience engaged. See more Nadia E @NadiaEiler Dec 10 An incredibly well-crafted and enticing story about a woman the world deserves to know about. The mixed media detective story paired with the historical analysis of Alice’s life creates a rich documentary with engaging twists and turns. Both Alice and the team uncovering her history are seriously impressive! See more Annabelle H @annabellehill Dec 10 Be Natural is a fascinating and inspiring documentary that reveals the forgotten legacy of Alice Guy-Blaché, the first female film director in history. I loved how the film not only restored her place in film history but also highlighted how easily women’s contributions can be erased when the industry does not value them. The detective-style storytelling kept me engaged and made her accomplishments feel even more groundbreaking. This documentary is a must-see for anyone who wants to understand how women helped shape cinema long before Hollywood was willing to acknowledge it. See more Read all reviews
Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché

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Movie Info

Synopsis The life and work of the first female film director.
Director
Pamela B. Green
Producer
Pamela B. Green
Screenwriter
Pamela B. Green, Joan Simon
Distributor
Zeitgeist Films, Kino Lorber
Production Co
Wildwood Enterprises, Foothill Productions
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 15, 2019, Limited
Rerelease Date (Theaters)
Apr 26, 2019
Release Date (Streaming)
Jul 23, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA)
$101.1K
Runtime
1h 43m
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