
Directing
Born July 1, 1873 · Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, France
Alice Guy-Blaché (July 1, 1873 – March 24, 1968) is generally considered to be the world's first female director. French-born Alice Guy entered the film business as a secretary at Gaumont-Paris in 1896. The next year Gaumont changed from manufacturing cameras to producing movies, and Guy became one of its first film directors. She impressed the company so much with the output (she averaged two two-reelers a week) and quality of her productions that by 1905 she was made the company's production director, supervising the company's other directors. In 1907 she married Herbert Blaché, an Englishman who ran the company's British and German offices. The pair soon went to the U.S. to set up the company's operations there. In 1910 she set up her own production company in New York and built a studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey. After a period of critical and financial success, her company's fortunes declined and she eventually shut down the studio. Although she secured work directing films for several major Hollywood studios, she returned to France in 1922 after her divorce from Blache. She was never able to secure any directorial jobs there, and never made a film again. In 1964 she returned to the U.S. and lived in Mahwah, New Jersey - not far from where her original studios were - with her daughters, where she died in 1968.

Fantastic Flowers
2025
Butterfly Dances
2007

Gaumont Treasures 1897-1913
2005

Tarnished Reputations
1920

The Great Adventure
1918

Behind the Mask
1917

When You and I Were Young
1917

House of Cards
1917

The Empress
1917

The Adventurer
1917

The Ocean Waif
1916

The Scarlet Woman
1916

What Will People Say?
1916

My Madonna
1915

The Song of the Wage Slave
1915

The Vampire
1915

Heart of a Painted Woman
1915

The Tigress
1914

The Lure
1914

The Woman of Mystery
1914
The Monster and the Girl
1914

The Dream Woman
1914
The Rogues of Paris
1913

The Pit and the Pendulum
1913

Matrimony's Speed Limit
1913

A House Divided
1913

A Severe Test
1913

Dick Whittington and His Cat
1913

Burstup Homes' Murder Case
1913

Officer Henderson
1913
Napoleon
1913
Burstup Homes
1913

The Thief
1913

The Coming of Sunbeam
1913

The Roads That Lead Home
1913

Cousins of Sherlocko
1913
The Woman Behind the Man
1912
Hearts Unknown
1912

The Girl in the Arm-Chair
1912

The Hater of Women
1912
The Face at the Window
1912

A Comedy of Errors
1912
The New Love And The Old
1912

Making an American Citizen
1912

The High Cost of Living
1912

Canned Harmony
1912
The Love of the Flag
1912
Treasures on the Wing
1912

The Fight in the Dark
1912

Playing Trumps
1912

His Double
1912
Phantom Paradise
1912

The Strike
1912

Two Little Rangers
1912

Broken Oaths
1912

For Love of the Flag
1912

Fra Diavolo
1912

In the Year 2000
1912

Souls in the Shadow
1912
The Wooing of Alice
1912
The Reformation of Mary
1912
Child of the Tenements
1912

Falling Leaves
1912
Blighted Lives
1912

Algie, the Miner
1912

God Disposes
1912
Hubby Does the Washing
1912

The Detective's Dog
1912

A Terrible Lesson
1912
Mrs. Cranston's Jewels
1912
Mignon
1912

Frozen on Love's Trail
1912

A Man's a Man
1912

Parson Sue
1912

A Fool and His Money
1912
Someone's Luck Society
1912
A Solax Celebration
1912
The Violin Maker of Nuremberg
1911

His Mother's Hymn
1911

Outwitted by Horse and Lariat
1911

Starting Something
1911

Greater Love Hath No Man
1911

Cupid and the Comet
1911

Across the Mexican Line
1911

Tramp Strategy
1911
From the Valley of Shadows
1911

Mixed Pets
1911

When Marian was Married
1911

Le Coq dressé de Cook et Rilly
1910

On the Barricade
1907

The Irresistible Piano
1907

The Glue
1907

The Rolling Bed
1907

The Cleaning Man
1907

The Fur Hat
1907

The Banknote
1907

The Race for the Sausage
1907

Alice Guy Films a 'Phonoscène' in the Studio at Buttes-Chaumont, Paris
1907

The Consequences of Feminism
1906

The Dirigible 'Homeland'
1906

Dranem Performs "Five O'Clock Tea"
1906

The Drunken Mattress
1906

The Stepmother
1906

The Mouse in the Crinoline
1906

Madame's Cravings
1906

The Game-Keeper's Son
1906
Course de taureaux
1906
Mireille
1906

The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ
1906
L'Honneur du Corse
1906

A Priest's Conscience
1906
Ocean Studies
1906
Les Druides
1906
The Sock
1905

Esmeralda
1905
The Fairy of Spring
1905
The Magician's Alms
1905

Tango
1905

The Statue
1905
Spain
1905

The Bricklayers
1905

Clown, Dog and Balloon
1905

Cook & Rilly's Trained Rooster
1905

Le Cake-walk de nouveau cirque
1905

Saharet Performs the Bolero
1905

Polin Performs "The Anatomy of a Draftee"
1905

Dranem Performs The True Jiu-Jitsu
1905

Félix Mayol Performs "Indiscreet Questions"
1905

Félix Mayol Performs "The Trottins' Polka"
1905

Félix Mayol Performs "White Lilacs"
1905
Faust
1905

The Malagueña and the Bullfighter
1905

In a Bamboo Hut
1905
The Crime on Temple Street
1904

Token of Love
1904
The First Cigarette
1904

Faust and Mephistopheles
1903

How Monsieur Takes His Bath
1903

Midwife to the Upper Class
1902
Les malabares: Les acrobats
1902
La Gigue
1902
Danse fantaisiste
1902

Eccentric Dance
1902

Serpentine Dance
1902

Miss Dundee and Her Performing Dogs
1902

Danse basque
1901

Danse Serpentine (In a Lion's Cage)
1900

Dance of the Seasons: Winter, Snow Dance
1900
Coucher d'une Parisienne
1900

At the Photographer's
1900

At the Floral Ball
1900

Avenue de l'Opéra
1900

The Landlady
1900

Turn-of-the-Century Surgery
1900

Pierrette's Escapades
1900

The Cabbage-Patch Fairy
1900
Danse du papillon
1900
Gavotte directoire
1900

At the Club
1899

Wonderful Absinthe
1899
Entrée Et Sortie De La Mine
1899

At the Hypnotist's
1898

Disappearing Act
1898

Danse Fleur de Lotus
1897

Ballet Libella
1897

Bathing in a Stream
1897

Serpentine Dance by Mme. Bob Walter
1897

The Cabbage-Patch Fairy
1896

Alice Guy - 13 Courts-métrages
Shadows of the Moulin Rouge

Alice Guy, the First Female Filmmaker
2021

Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché
2018

The Women Who Run Hollywood
2016

The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blaché
1995
Qui est Alice Guy?
1976
A Solax Celebration
1912

Alice Guy Films a 'Phonoscène' in the Studio at Buttes-Chaumont, Paris
1907
Mireille
1906
Spain
1905

The Cabbage-Patch Fairy
1896

Animated Portrait Shot by L and A Lumière
1895