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Alfred Machin worked for a while as a photojournalist for L'Illustration before being recruited by the powerful Pathé, who sent him to Africa in 1907. He brought back around twenty adventure and animal films and short films. The scenes he filmed showing the way big cats lived caused a sensation as, at great risk to his life, he had shown no hesitation in taking close-up shots. He also features among the pioneers of aerial images, a performance saluted by both French and international press. As Director of Photography for two of Pathé's specialist branches, the company then entrusted Alfred Machin with the operations of the first film studio in Belgium. It is thus that in 1912 Belgian cinema was born on the Chaussée de Gand in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean. Several outstanding films were filmed at the Karreveld studios, including two full-length Belgian films that were preserved, La Fille de Delft and the pacifist and premonitory
