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Lois Weber
Directing
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 fi…
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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."
Biography expanded
BODY OF WORK
Lois Weber's Filmography
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The Women Who Run Hollywood
as Self (archive footage)
Early Directors on Directing
as Self
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
as Mrs. Broome
No Poster
Alone in the World
Idle Wives
as Anne
The Eye of God
as Renie
Hop - The Devil's Brew
as Lydia Jansen
Scandal
as Daisy Dean
Sunshine Molly
as Sunshine Molly
No Poster
False Colors
as Mrs. Moore
Lost by a Hair
as Summer Girl
No Poster
The Pursuit of Hate
as Diana Grave
The Spider and Her Web
as Madame DuBarr
The Merchant of Venice
as Portia
The Jew's Christmas
as Leah - Isaac's Daughter
How Men Propose
as The Maid
Suspense
as The Wife
The Rosary
as The Soldier's Sweetheart
No Poster
The Picture of Dorian Gray
No Poster
A Japanese Idyll
No Poster
Eyes That See Not
as The Millionaire's Wife
Fine Feathers
as Mira, the Artist's Model
The Price
as Ann
No Poster
Lost Illusions
as Grace - The Wife
No Poster
Sherlock Holmes, Jr.
as Mrs. Brown
No Poster
Fate
as Flora Brown
On the Brink
as Tess
The Twins
as The Twin Sisters
From Death to Life
as Aratus' Wife
A Heroine of '76
as The Tavern Keeper's Daughter