Alice GuyBlaché July 1 1873 March 24 1968 is generally considered to be the worlds first female director Frenchborn Alice Guy entered the film business as a secretary at GaumontParis 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 the company so much with the output she averaged two tworeelers a week and quality of her productions that by 1905 she was made the companys production director supervising the companys other directors In 1907 she married Herbert Blaché an Englishman who ran the companys British and German offices The pair soon went to the US to set up the companys 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 companys 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 US and lived in Mahwah New Jersey not far from where her original studios were with her daughters where she died in 1968
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