Lois Weber

The first talkie was directed by Alice Guy, the first color film was produced by Lois Weber, who directed more than 300 films over 10 years. Frances Marion wrote screenplays for the Hollywood Star Mary Pickford and won two Oscars, Dorothy Arzner was the most powerful film director in Hollywood. And what do all of them have in common? They are all women and they have all been forgotten. Incredibly, it also took until 2010 for the first woman, Kathryn Bigelow, to win the Oscar for Best Director. Even if underrepresented women have always played a big part in Hollywood and it is this part of the film history left untold that this documentary sets out to uncover.

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There were more women directors before 1920 than at any other time in history. The first director to put a narrative story on celluloid was, Alice Guy Blaché in 1896. Few people know that Lillian Gish became a director in her own right in 1920. Ida Lupino directed over a hundred episodes of "Have Gun, Will Travel," "Thriller," "Gunsmoke," and many independent features.

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A doctor's wife is arrested for educating impoverished women about birth control.

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Bobby's mother dies and leaves him to care for the baby.

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Characters in the film attend a movie titled 'Life’s Mirror', where they see parallel, cautionary versions of their own lives. Only the first two of the original seven reels survive.

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Olaf writes his memoirs, before his execution. He tells of his life as a struggling farmer when Renie, stranded in the village, stays one night in his home and Olaf falls in love with her.

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Lydia Jansen is happily married to a young customs inspector, but she harbors a dark secret. She is addicted to smoking opium or in slang parlance “hop.” To keep her secret, she willingly pays the blackmail her maid extorts from her having learned of Lydia’s habit through her own fiancée who is part of the ring importing the devil’s brew. Something unknown to all is that the operation is run by Lydia’s father an important politician in the city where this all occurs. As her husband’s investigation tightens the noose on the organization Lydia faces a crisis.

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The lives of a stenographer and her boss are thrown into turmoil by reckless gossip.

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A woman known as Sunshine Molly gets a job in an oil field, and clashes with a belligerent employee named "Bull" Forrest. (Note: multiple reels of this film were damaged beyond repair. Only three reels remain, two of which are also heavily damaged.)

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Famed actor Lloyd Phillips blames his infant daughter Dixie for her mother’s death in childbirth, leaving her in the care of his housekeeper, Mrs. Hughes and departs. Eighteen years later having squandered the money entrusted to her by Phillips Mrs. Hughes and her worthless son concoct a swindle to refill the coffers but are ultimately thwarted.

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A group of jealous men conspire to defeat a romantic rival who has captured the attention of all of the ladies at a summer hotel. (Note: The majority of this film is considered lost. Only a fragment survives.)

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Diana Grave's husband has left her, preferring any life to that of living with a woman who is not congenial to him. Howbeit, her husband gone is a different matter than her husband present. She commissioned a detective to locate him.

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The story concerns the reformation of a fast woman who runs a gambling establishment. Her one fear is of death and her regeneration is brought about.

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A rich merchant, Antonio is depressed for no good reason, until his good friend Bassanio comes to tell him how he's in love with Portia. Portia's father has died and left a very strange will: only the man that picks the correct casket out of three (silver, gold, and lead) can marry her. Bassanio, unfortunately, is strapped for cash with which to go wooing, and Antonio wants to help, so Antonio borrows the money from Shylock, the money-lender. But Shylock has been nursing a grudge against Antonio's insults, and makes unusual terms to the loan. And when Antonio's business fails, those terms threaten his life, and it's up to Bassanio and Portia to save him.

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Early Lois Weber film. Isaac and his faithful wife, Rachel, deplore that in America their children are forced to work on the Jewish Sabbath. Leah and Sam are not so strict as their parents and the old customs pall about their more American spirits. Sam is employed in a cloak house and secretly loves his employer's daughter, but she refuses to recognize him. Leah is loved by the handsome gentile floorwalker, and despite her father's objections, she marries him. Isaac orders Leah from the house. Later, the daughter of the cloak manufacturer marries an admirer and Sam is invited to the wedding. He drinks and disgraces himself, and returning home, is turned out by the heartbroken rabbi. He leaves, telling the old man that he will return when the father celebrated the Christian Christmas.

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Three men in succession propose marriage to Grace Darling; she accepts all! Since they are roommates, the three discover their problem in short order; when they return for an explanation, they're in for a surprise.

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Abandoned by her maidservant in an isolated country house, a mother must protect herself and her baby from an invading tramp while her husband races home in a stolen car to save them.

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Haunting and hypnotic, this artistic gem recounts the lyrics from a popular 1898 song of the same name. Weber’s stylistics, including circular matte shots, foregrounding of the cross and the rosary, and placement of the characters within each shot bring to the film an enormous emotional and spiritual range.

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Alleged silent short adaptation of Oscar Wilde's novel, first mentioned in a 1966 copy of Films In Review. Recent scholarship argues this film never existed and is erroneously included in the publication.

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A Japanese Idyll is a 1912 silent short drama film directed by and starring Lois Weber. The film was produced by the Rex Motion Picture Company for release by Universal Film Manufacturing Company.

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A self-centred wealthy woman is transformed after she is confronted with the harsh reality of the living conditions endured by the employees of her husband's mill.

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The story of a male painter who rises to fame after completing two portraits of his maid, a woman who later becomes his companion.

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Pretty Ann, and Joe, the hostler, one day chance to meet. Strong is Joe, and simple, and Ann is shy and sweet. As man and maid have done before, they love, and marry, too. And live happy ever after? Ah, this tale is new to you! Yes, the tale is drear, prosaic; and so poetry won't do. A baby boy comes to bless the union. Joe is working in the stables when they tell him of his joy: his heart is gay and happy, and he tells the horses so. Then, it might be the angels were jealous of such mortal happiness; it might be the devil, seeing the stage so set, entered to play the leading role.

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A marital romance in which a married artist woos the wife of another man.

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Little Sherlock Holmes, Jr., reads the doughty doings of his hero-god, and at once determines to become a detective himself.

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Jack Norton had traveled the downgrade, had transgressed the laws of man, had trespassed the forbidden, and paid the penalty.

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A 1911 silent drama film written and directed by Edwin S. Porter and Lois Weber. Starring Lois Weber, Phillips Smalley, and Charles De Forrest.

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The baby daughter of Mrs. Norton, a widowed seamstress, dies. The sorrow-stricken mother gazes at the empty cradle and decides to replace the departed soul with an orphan child upon whom she can lavish the love, the rightful object of which the Great Giver and Taker has taken from her. She goes to the orphanage and asks to be given a baby girl, and is given one of the twin baby sisters. Richard Golden, a wealthy shirtwaist manufacturer, has an only son, a little boy, who yearns for a sister and continually begs his father to bring him a little sister to be a playmate to him, and the father, to satisfy the child's persistent pleading, goes to the orphan home and brings home the other little twin sister. Years roll by and both girls have grown to young womanhood in their different stations in life. Jack Golden, now grown to manhood, and knowing that the girl is only a foster sister, asks her to become his wife.

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A chemist named Aratus invents a concoction that will turn creatures to stone, but only realizes the dangers of his creation when his wife falls victim to it.

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During the American Revolution, an innkeeper's daughter learns of a plot to assassinate George Washington while he will be staying at her father's inn.

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In this melodrama filmed on location in Hawaii, a sugar plantation manager finds himself falling in love with a native girl, but instead of committing to her, he marries a socially prominent young woman from San Francisco. The spoiled girl does not easily adapt to the rigors of plantation life and she gets terribly bored. She is just about to give in to the romantic overtures of a persistent native when her former lover shows up. The husband gets jealous and is about to attack him when the wife sets fire to the cane field. The husband's native lover saves him from death. Afterward, his wife leaves to be with her old flame, and the manager is free to be with the woman he's loved all along.

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Topsy, a Black slave girl who "jes' growed" is auctioned but nobody will bid. A young girl named Eva purchases Topsy for a nickel.

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The prohibition is in full swing and Egypt Hagen, a new woman, is the constant subject of controversy in her religious small town. After a scandalous night of partying leaves her publicly shamed, she finds unlikely companionship in the town's new reverend. As their bond intensifies under the watchful eye of concerned townsfolk, her sullied reputation threatens his standing as a respected clergyman.

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A Broadway actress becomes a star due to the guidance of her director. The two fall in love, but are prevented from marrying due to a clause put into her contract by her producer.

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Jewel stays with her grizzled, angry grandfather while her parents are overseas on business. Family squabbling is brought to heel through love and understanding from Jewel's pure love for others and trust in Divine Love.

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After inventing an automobile attachment that makes him rich, Frank Boyd marries his childhood sweetheart and starts a family with her, but he soon finds himself restless and irritated by his new life of comfortable domesticity.

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Professor Griggs, teaching at the college, doesn't get paid a living wage; his next door neighbor, successful shoemaker Olsen, has money and plentiful food, while the Griggses have hardly any. When the professor's rich student Phil West falls for beautiful Griggs daughter Amelia and also befriends the poor Reverend Gates (a young man who is also in love with Amelia), he observes the difference in his life and theirs and tries to help make a difference.

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An insecure wife fears her husband may be straying back to an old flame.

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A rich woman and a poor man fall in love, but they face the opposition of her family.

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A woman, having lost interest in her soon to be bankrupt husband, decides to seduce a doctor.

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Fred Worthington, a disillusioned New York businessman, settles down in the country with his childhood sweetheart "Maddie" Irwin. While Fred enjoys the peacefulness of country life, Maddie yearns to experience the excitement of the big city.

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A young woman of humble origins hides her family's lack of wealth and prestige from her boarding school friends.

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Mary Regan is the daughter of a gentleman crook and an heiress. Although she has received a good upbringing, she refuses to marry Robert Clifford for fear of damaging his career as a city official. Some old associates of her father, Peter Loveman and Jim Bradley, want her to help them in their blackmailing schemes. She won't, and escapes from her trying situation by going to the mountains for a rest.

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Marie, a hotel maid, falls in love with millionaire's son Roger, but Roger cannot marry her because of her inferior station and his unwillingness to make his family unhappy thereby. They separate. When next they meet, Roger discovers that Marie is actually a princess. Now their renewed romance cannot continue because Roger is a mere commoner. But the Bolshevik revolution provides complication and at last resolution to their dilemma.

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A minister and his young daughter Bess, journey west where he hopes to regain his health. They become involved with notorious outlaw 'Eagle' Ryan. The outlaw becomes influenced by the power of religion along with Bess's gentle persuasion, he is reformed from his life of crime and forgiven by all the townspeople.

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A pretty but poor girl leaves the young boy who loves her for a rich playboy who she believes will take care of her, but the wealthy cad has other plans for her.

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A sheltered young woman began a romance with a playboy, under the mistaken assumption that they'd get married. When she finds this isn't the case, she starts a feud with him which continues even after her marriage to somebody else.

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The mysterious "K" takes a humble job and falls in love with his landlady's daughter, Sidney Page. Sidney discourages her boyish admirer, Joe Drummond, and seeks training as a nurse. Infatuated with the head surgeon, Dr. Max Wilson, she accepts his proposal, which infuriates nurse Carlotta, who also loves Max. Carlotta lures Max to a roadhouse, where Joe, mistaking her for Sidney, shoots Max. K appears and, assuming his true identity as the famous Dr. Edwards, saves Max's life by performing his "Edwards operation."

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A female ape takes to mothering the orphaned boy (Tarzan) and raises him over the course of many years until a rescue mission is finally launched and the search party combs the jungle for the long-time missing Lord Greystoke. But then, one of the search members, Jane Porter, gets separated from the group and comes face to face with fearsome wild animals. Tarzan saves her from harm just in the knick of time and love begins to blossom.

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A poor shopgirl is offered a "good time" for a week by the son of her employer. She accepts, but the offer is misunderstood by her brother, who informs the girl's parents of her "fling."

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A doctor's wife is arrested for educating impoverished women about birth control.

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A depressed man grows to love life just as his fortune teller's predictions become dire.

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A farmer is unjustly convicted of a homicide he did not commit.

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Mina Rogers (Mary MacLaren) is unfairly cast out into the cruel, cruel world by her crotchety old uncle. She searches for a new home, resorting to deception so that she will be taken in. Along the way she meets a doctor, certain mysteries surrounding her are solved, and the doctor asks her to marry him.

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Characters in the film attend a movie titled 'Life’s Mirror', where they see parallel, cautionary versions of their own lives. Only the first two of the original seven reels survive.

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A chorus girl gains infamy after the suicide of her beau.

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A young working girl, struggling to support her family on her meager salary, desperately wishes for a new pair of shoes.

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Olaf writes his memoirs, before his execution. He tells of his life as a struggling farmer when Renie, stranded in the village, stays one night in his home and Olaf falls in love with her.

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Walton, the District Attorney, yearns to have children. Soon after defending an author on trial for publishing indecent literature, Walton discovers a secret his wife and her socialite friends have been hiding from him.

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Cora Madison, the town flirt, delights in making men love her and then dropping them, so when newcomer Valentine Corliss arrives, she views him as just another potential victim. Rather than falling for her charms, however, Valentine persuades Cora to use them in getting her past suitors to invest money in one of his phony business deals. Cora soon falls in love with Valentine but also discovers, along with the other townspeople, that he has been swindling almost everyone and that he courted Cora simply to be able to use her well-respected father's name in connection with his business scam.

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Lydia Jansen is happily married to a young customs inspector, but she harbors a dark secret. She is addicted to smoking opium or in slang parlance “hop.” To keep her secret, she willingly pays the blackmail her maid extorts from her having learned of Lydia’s habit through her own fiancée who is part of the ring importing the devil’s brew. Something unknown to all is that the operation is run by Lydia’s father an important politician in the city where this all occurs. As her husband’s investigation tightens the noose on the organization Lydia faces a crisis.

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Fenella, a poor Italian girl, falls in love with a Spanish nobleman, but their affair triggers a revolution and national catastrophe.

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Ed Brown plays a old war veteran tired of living in a veterans' home and decides to move in with his wealthy nephew.

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When her husband dies and leaves her penniless, Mrs. Lawrence Evringham moves in with her wealthy but grim father-in-law and schemes to marry Eloise, her daughter, to the rich Dr. Ballard.

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The lives of a stenographer and her boss are thrown into turmoil by reckless gossip.

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A woman known as Sunshine Molly gets a job in an oil field, and clashes with a belligerent employee named "Bull" Forrest. (Note: multiple reels of this film were damaged beyond repair. Only three reels remain, two of which are also heavily damaged.)

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