'Goodfella' Honors Fort Lee Filmmaker Alice Guy Blache
31.12.69
On Thursday night, the Directors Guild of America (DGA) honored posthumously Fort Lee filmmaker and cinema pioneer Alice Guy Blache with the DGA Special Directorial Lifetime Achievement Award. Madame Blache was honored as the first woman director in cinema history.
Blache built Solax Studio in Fort Lee on Lemoine Ave., the present-day site of A&P . The Fort Lee Film Commission and the Fort Lee Historical Society placed a marker at this site at the entrance, and it is the only marker in America dedicated to Madame Blache and her Solax Studio.
The Fort Lee Film Commission’s odyssey to gain DGA honors for our "Reel Jersey Girl," Madame Blache, began a decade ago. Our work started with Madame Blache biographer Alison McMahan, whose book, Alice Guy Blache, Lost Visionary of the Cinema , is considered, along with the Anthony Slide edited, The Memoirs of Alice Guy Blache, the best go-to books to gain knowledge and appreciation of Madame Blache. McMahan suggested we place a marker on the old Solax site, which we did and she along with Madame Blache’s great-granddaughter, Nicki Sanchez, helped us unveil that sign on March 13, 2004.
Source: Patch.com