Alfred Machin

Biography

Alfred Machin cut his teeth in the nascent film industry as a Pathé cameraman at the turn of the 20th century. His lens first explored the world through documentary shorts filmed across Africa between 1907 and 1909. After a tenure at the Nice studio in 1910, Machin became a cornerstone of Pathé’s European expansion, establishing the company’s presence in Amsterdam in 1911 and Brussels in 1913. His artistic legacy was cemented with the 1913 release of Maudite Soit la Guerre, a powerful anti-war statement that reached the public just eight weeks before the onset of the Great War. In 1921, Machin returned to his roots by purchasing the Pathé studio in Nice, where he launched his own production house and oversaw nine final films before his death in 1929.