Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché

Pamela B. Green's 2018 documentary follows the trail of one of the first directors in cinema. In 1896, when nobody had yet thought of making fiction films, Alice Guy-Blaché made one that told a story; over the next twenty years she directed hundreds of films, founded her own studio in America and experimented with sound. Then she was almost entirely erased from the history of film, her work credited to others and her name gone from the records. The documentary investigates how that erasure happened and puts Green's own research inside the story: archive searches, tracing relatives and correcting false credits. That method gives the film the air of a detective story. Jodie Foster narrates. Who it's for: viewers curious about film history and forgotten names. Who it's not for: anyone expecting a calm account; the documentary is visually very busy.