Making an American Citizen is a 1912 silent comedy short film by the pioneering French woman filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché, produced at Solax Studios.

"[4][5] Ivan Orloff (Lee Beggs) and his unnamed wife (Blanche Cornwall) are poor peasants, presumably living in the Russian Empire.

When she succumbs under the weight of the bundle, Ivan starts prodding her with a stick, threatening to beat her.

The second "lesson in Americanism" takes place in the couple's new home at Odessa Inn.

When she protests, Ivan goes to beat her, but a passer-by stops him and punches him several times, forcing him to tend to his wife who has fainted and work instead of her.

For Ivan's fourth and final "lesson in Americanism," he gets sentenced to hard labor for six months.