Lois Weber
- Directing
- June 12, 1879 · Allegheny City [now Pittsburgh], Pennsylvania, USA
- November 13, 1939
Biography
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."
Known for
Filmography
- The Women Who Run Hollywood · Self
- Early Directors on Directing · Self
- Hollywood · Self
- White Heat · Writer, Director
- The Angel of Broadway · Director
- Topsy and Eva · Adaptation, Screenplay
- Sensation Seekers · Director, Writer
- The Marriage Clause · Director, Writer
- A Chapter in Her Life · Director, Adaptation
- What Do Men Want? · Writer, Director
- The Blot · Director, Writer
- Too Wise Wives · Director, Producer
- What's Worth While? · Producer, Director
- To Please One Woman · Writer, Director
- Forbidden · Writer, Director
- Home · Director, Writer
- Mary Regan · Director, Scenario Writer
- A Midnight Romance · Writer, Director
- When a Girl Loves · Writer, Director
- Borrowed Clothes · Director, Writer
- For Husbands Only · Adaptation, Director
- The Doctor and the Woman · Director, Writer
- Tarzan of the Apes · Writer
- The Price of a Good Time · Director, Writer
- The Hand That Rocks the Cradle · Mrs. Broome, Director
- Even as You and I · Director
- The Mysterious Mrs. M · Director, Writer
- Alone in the World
- The People vs. John Doe · Director, Writer
- Wanted- A Home · Producer, Story
- Idle Wives · Anne, Director
- Saving the Family Name · Director, Writer
- Shoes · Director, Producer
- The Eye of God · Renie, Scenario Writer
- Where Are My Children? · Director, Producer
- John Needham's Double · Director
- The Flirt · Writer, Director
- Hop - The Devil's Brew · Lydia Jansen, Director
- The Dumb Girl of Portici · Producer, Adaptation
- Discontent · Director, Writer
- Jewel · Writer
- A Cigarette - That's All · Director
- Scandal · Daisy Dean, Director
- Betty in Search of a Thrill · Director
- Captain Courtesy · Director
- Sunshine Molly · Sunshine Molly, Director
- Hypocrites · Director, Producer
- It's No Laughing Matter · Writer, Director
- False Colors · Mrs. Moore, Screenplay
- The Opened Shutters · Scenario Writer
- Lost by a Hair · Summer Girl, Director
- The Pursuit of Hate · Diana Grave, Director
- The Spider and Her Web · Madame DuBarr, Director
- The Merchant of Venice · Portia, Director
- The Jew's Christmas · Leah - Isaac's Daughter, Director
- How Men Propose · The Maid, Director
- Suspense · The Wife, Director
- The Rosary · The Soldier's Sweetheart, Director
- The Picture of Dorian Gray · Screenplay
- A Japanese Idyll · Director
- The Troubadour's Triumph · Director, Writer
- Eyes That See Not · The Millionaire's Wife, Director
- Fine Feathers · Mira, the Artist's Model, Director
- The Price · Ann, Director
- Lost Illusions · Grace - The Wife
- Sherlock Holmes, Jr. · Mrs. Brown
- Fate · Flora Brown, Director
- On the Brink · Tess, Director
- The Twins · The Twin Sisters, Writer
- From Death to Life · Aratus' Wife, Director
- A Heroine of '76 · The Tavern Keeper's Daughter, Director