The inaugural event in a new talk & screening series is free to the area community, and features as guest speaker Catherine Wyler of the Women’s Film Preservation Fund, and as moderator Chesapeake Film Festival’s own Kimberly Skyrme, casting director for House of Cards, among many other film and television productions. The evening promises to be an enlightening discovery of little-known motion picture history.
Festivities begin with a reception and presentation at 6:00pm on Tuesday, April 19, at The Talbot County Free
Library at 100 West Dover Street in Easton. Discussion and Q&A follows a screening of the 1911 comedy short, “Mixed Pets,” directed by Alice Guy Blaché.
“Part of the new vision for Chesapeake Film Festival is to serve our community with programming that reflects the area’s interest in heritage and history,” said Joan Leanos, newly elected Board President of Chesapeake Film Festival. “We’re thrilled to have two of the most accomplished women in today’s movie industry bringing us fascinating historical insight and entertainment.”
The earliest days of moviemaking saw many varieties of experimentation, but Alice Guy Blaché may well have been the very first to actually craft stories on film, fundamentally shaping what it meant to be a director as the role is defined today. From 1896 to 1906 Alice Guy was almost certainly the only woman filmmaker in the world. Barbra Streisand has suggested that Alice Guy Blaché was indeed the inventor of the film director’s job.
Visit ChesapeakeFilmFestival.com for more details on Alice Guy Blaché and the screening.
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