Film Commission to Celebrate Pioneering Female Filmmaker

The Fort Lee Film Commission is sponsoring three events Friday celebrating the birthday of cinema pioneer Alice Guy Blache and raising funds for Fort Lee performing arts students and its annual high school film festival.

Blache, whom film commission executive director Tom Meyers says in a blog post is the “first woman director in cinema history,” built and operated Solax Studio in Fort Lee from 1912 to 1918, “producing, directing and writing hundreds of short and feature-length films.”

“Ms. Blache is just one reminder of Bergen County’s rich film history, and more specifically, Fort Lee’s role in founding the modern-day film industry,” Meyers said, adding that the Director's Guild of America will formally recognize Blache as a “cinema pioneer” this year.

Meyers said the following events “celebrating of Blache’s trailblazing and innovative filmmaking” will take place Friday with proceeds benefiting the Fort Lee Film Commission's annual Jersey Filmmakers of Tomorrow Bergen County High School Film Festival and the Fort Lee High School Academy for the Performing Arts:

• Friday, 11 a.m. - Birthday commemoration at the Blache’s gravesite at Maryrest Cemetery, 770 Darlington Ave. in Mahwah
• Friday, 12:30 p.m. - Reception and luncheon. Guest speakers include Bergen County Executive Kathleen A. Donovan, State Senator Loretta Weinberg, Assemblywoman Joan Voss and Garden State Film Festival Executive Director and 2011 Fort Lee Film Commission Alice Guy Blache Award recipient Diane Raver. The luncheon takes place at Marcello's Ristorante at 21 Lafayette Ave. in Suffern, NY
• Friday, 2 p.m. - Screening of a documentary trailer and two short films by Blache: Speed Limit (1913) and A House Divided (1913), both produced at Solax Studio. The screening is at Lafayette Theatre at 97 Lafayette Ave. in Suffern.

Tickets are $35 and are available from the Fort Lee Film Commission. For more information visit their website or call 201-693-2763. 

“This celebration of Alice Guy Blache's life and impressive body of work will raise funds for film projects and educational outreach, helping further her important legacy,” Meyers said. “Before Hollywood there was Fort Lee—America's first film town.”