Lois Weber
Directing
1879-06-12 · Allegheny City [now Pittsburgh], Pennsylvania, USA
Lois Weber (1879 - 1939) was a true American auteur on par with D. W. Griffith. A director, actress, screenwriter, and producer of mostly silent films, she was the first American woman to direct a full-length feature film (1914's The Merchant of Venice), the first American woman director to own her own film studio, and one of the first film directors to experiment with sound. Weber pioneered the split-screen technique in the 1913 short film Suspense, and Hypocrites featured the first non-pornographic full-frontal female nude scene in 1915. Many of her films tackled social issues like abortion, poverty, discrimination, and religion, drawing the attention of censors. Only a fraction of her films, estimated to number between 200 and 400, were preserved. In 2022, the American Film Institute announced a new initiative titled "Behind the Veil," after one of Weber's lost films. The initiative "will document 6,000 short films from the silent and early sound eras to uncover the innovative contributions of female and BIPOC storytellers."
Filmography
The Women Who Run Hollywood
2016 · Movie
Early Directors on Directing
2009 · Movie
White Heat
1934 · Movie
The Angel of Broadway
1927 · Movie
Topsy and Eva
1927 · Movie
Sensation Seekers
1927 · Movie
The Marriage Clause
1926 · Movie
A Chapter in Her Life
1923 · Movie
What Do Men Want?
1921 · Movie
The Blot
1921 · Movie
Too Wise Wives
1921 · Movie
What's Worth While?
1921 · Movie
To Please One Woman
1920 · Movie
Forbidden
1919 · Movie
Home
1919 · Movie
Mary Regan
1919 · Movie
A Midnight Romance
1919 · Movie
When a Girl Loves
1919 · Movie
Borrowed Clothes
1918 · Movie
For Husbands Only
1918 · Movie
The Doctor and the Woman
1918 · Movie
Tarzan of the Apes
1918 · Movie
The Price of a Good Time
1917 · Movie
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
1917 · Movie
Even as You and I
1917 · Movie
The Mysterious Mrs. M
1917 · Movie
Alone in the World
1917 · Movie
The People vs. John Doe
1916 · Movie
Wanted- A Home
1916 · Movie
Idle Wives
1916 · Movie
Saving the Family Name
1916 · Movie
Shoes
1916 · Movie
The Eye of God
1916 · Movie
Where Are My Children?
1916 · Movie
John Needham's Double
1916 · Movie
The Flirt
1916 · Movie
Hop - The Devil's Brew
1916 · Movie
The Dumb Girl of Portici
1916 · Movie
Discontent
1916 · Movie
Jewel
1915 · Movie
A Cigarette - That's All
1915 · Movie
Scandal
1915 · Movie
Betty in Search of a Thrill
1915 · Movie
Captain Courtesy
1915 · Movie
Sunshine Molly
1915 · Movie
Hypocrites
1915 · Movie
It's No Laughing Matter
1915 · Movie
False Colors
1914 · Movie
The Opened Shutters
1914 · Movie
Lost by a Hair
1914 · Movie
The Pursuit of Hate
1914 · Movie
The Spider and Her Web
1914 · Movie
The Merchant of Venice
1914 · Movie
The Jew's Christmas
1913 · Movie
How Men Propose
1913 · Movie
Suspense.
1913 · Movie
The Rosary
1913 · Movie
The Picture of Dorian Gray
1913 · Movie
A Japanese Idyll
1912 · Movie
The Troubadour's Triumph
1912 · Movie
Eyes That See Not
1912 · Movie
Fine Feathers
1912 · Movie
The Price
1911 · Movie
Lost Illusions
1911 · Movie
Sherlock Holmes, Jr.
1911 · Movie
Fate
1911 · Movie
On the Brink
1911 · Movie
The Twins
1911 · Movie
From Death to Life
1911 · Movie
A Heroine of '76
1911 · Movie