1894, Paris. How did a young woman, just 21, schooled in convents and trained as a secretary, enter a male-dominated world and go on to shape the greatest art form of the 20th century?
WonderShadows tells the true story of Alice Guy Blaché, who single-handedly developed the art of cinematic narrative.
While working for the Gaumont Company in Paris, she invented the role of movie director, made some of the first synchronized sound films, and pioneered the use of a single character's emotional perspective to tell a story.
In 1907 she followed her husband, Herbert Blaché, to New York. She built her own film studio in Fort Lee, N.J. (America’s original Hollywood), the first woman ever to do so, even as she raised her two children.
But by 1920 she was bankrupt, divorced, and out of work. Her accomplishments were lost to history. Alice Guy Blaché is the most famous woman you never heard of. WonderShadows tells the story of her life as she lived it.