( CNN ) -- Her name was Alice Guy-Blache , and you 've probably never heard of her . That 's understandable . Her heyday was a century ago . She was French and spent only a few years in the United States . Her work -- what little of it has survived -- generally lives on in museum collections . But perhaps you should find out who she is . For Guy-Blache , who died in 1968 , was a pioneer in the film industry . She was the first female director . She was perhaps the first to create a narrative film . She was an innovator in storytelling and in business . Pamela Green is trying to raise her profile . Green and Jarik van Sluijs , her colleague at the Los Angeles design firm PIC , have created a Kickstarter campaign to secure funding for a documentary on Guy-Blache . The work-in-progress , called `` Be Natural '' -- after a common Guy-Blache acting instruction -- is attempting to raise $ 200,000 . Green was inspired by a special about female pioneers in cinema , which also included Mary Pickford and Lois Weber . `` Alice stuck with me , '' says Green . `` And when it was over , I was surprised that I did n't hear ( more ) about her . '' Given her contributions to motion pictures , you 'd think Guy-Blache would have attracted more notice . She was present practically at the creation of the industry , joining French businessman Leon Gaumont -- whose company was one of the first movie producers -- as a secretary in 1894 . Two years later , when she was just 23 , she helmed a one-reel short , `` La Fee aux Choux '' ( `` The Cabbage Fairy '' ) . She started her own company , Solax Films , in 1910 , and set up a state-of-the-art studio in Fort Lee , New Jersey , two years later -- the first woman to own a studio . She oversaw more than 1,000 films , many noted for their pioneering use of light , composition and even synchronized sound . `` She had a very important place in film history , '' says Thomas J. Slater , a film scholar at Indiana University of Pennsylvania who specializes in the silent era . `` She was more than just a filmmaker -- she also knew how to organize a production company and get her work out there . '' Slater suspects that a combination of factors caused Guy-Blache to fall into anonymity . The business moved to Hollywood ; Guy-Blache never really made the move . At the same time , her husband , Herbert Blache , took control of Solax , and she eventually returned to France and divorced him . And there was also the matter of her sex . Even 100 years later , women struggle for positions of power in Hollywood -- particularly behind the camera . It was big news three years ago when Kathryn Bigelow won best director for `` The Hurt Locker , '' only the fourth woman to even be nominated in that category . It was a different atmosphere in the teens and early '20s , says Slater . At the time a number of women were screenwriters and directors . But once the business started consolidating , women 's creative positions `` dropped off drastically , '' he says . Even Weber , one of the most accomplished directors of the teens , was largely forgotten . Indeed , from the beginning of the sound era in 1927 until the 1970s , about the only female directors of note in Hollywood were Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino . In the case of Guy-Blache , says Green , `` maybe her experience and her accomplishments were something that worked a little bit against her . They did n't want people who knew too much . She kind of encompassed that . '' Though the film will make use of old stills and Guy-Blache 's work , Green and van Sluijs want it to have a modern look , where -- thanks to computer effects -- the viewer will practically feel inside the frame . The two have the experience : as established creative directors , they 've produced sequences for such films as `` The Cabin in the Woods , '' `` 42 '' and `` The Muppets . '' The trailer for `` Be Natural '' invites you into another time . A number of film luminaries have gotten behind `` Be Natural 's '' Kickstarter campaign , including Robert Redford and Jodie Foster , but the campaign is still well short of its financial goal . ( An FAQ explains that despite some stars ' participation , `` this is not the type of project that gets traditional Hollywood funding , nor is it the type of film that qualifies for educational grants . '' ) Green is hopeful they 'll make it across the finish line . After all , just because she 's little known does n't mean that Alice Guy-Blache is any less inspirational , says Green . `` There 's an Alice in all of us , '' she says . `` This is a piece of history , but that 's not the story . The story is about a woman who saw the opportunity in a time where she had nothing but obstacles , and she went and did it . The message is , if you have a dream , and you visualize it , you can do it . ''
Alice Guy-Blache was pioneering female director . Guy-Blache had her own studio in silent era , directed hundreds of films . She 's now the subject of a Kickstarter campaign to tell her story .