The Cabbage Patch Fairy (1900) | Oldest Known Original Narrative Film

THE CABBAGE PATCH FAIRY (French title : La Fée aux Choux) is the oldest surviving film of trailblazing French filmmaker Alice-Guy Blaché. It’s also considered to be the oldest original narrative film. It is a a brief fantasy film where a woman in a dress moves about a cabbage patch on a stage, taking two babies and a doll out of the cabbages. The first cabbage patch kids? Blaché made two other versions of this short in 1896 and 1902. The first one is considered lost. The second one you can watch here. Alice Guy-Blaché was a French trailblazing film director. She was one of the first filmmakers (man or woman) to make a narrative fiction film, as well as the first woman to direct a film. From 1896 to 1906, she was probably the only female filmmaker in the world. It’s estimated that in her lifetime, she directed over 1,000 films. Some that were one minute long to feature films. Unfortunately, a lot of them have been lost. She was artistic director and a co-founder of Solax Studios. She was a major influence on other male directors, but has since been largely forgotten. Happy Women’s History Month! This film is in the public domain meaning it has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Corporations lobbied Congress to get U.S. copyright laws extended by 20 years, twice! Because of that, it allows published works to be under copyright for almost a century and corporations to squeeze every last ounce of profit from them even long after the profitability has past. It keeps people from enjoying art, which is the purpose of art. #femalefilmmakers #womenfilmmakers #AliceGuyBlaché #publicdomainfilms