Lois Weber
Known for: Directing
Born: June 12, 1879
Died: November 13, 1939
Place of birth: 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."
Advertisement
Filmography
70 movies · 0 TV shows, newest first
7.1
The Women Who Run Hollywood
2016
NR
Early Directors on Directing
2009
5.3
White Heat
1934
10.0
The Angel of Broadway
1927
10.0
Topsy and Eva
1927
6.7
Sensation Seekers
1927
9.0
The Marriage Clause
1926
6.5
A Chapter in Her Life
1923
4.3
What Do Men Want?
1921
6.3
The Blot
1921
5.4
Too Wise Wives
1921
9.0
What's Worth While?
1921
7.0
To Please One Woman
1920
7.0
Forbidden
1919
7.4
Home
1919
10.0
Mary Regan
1919
10.0
A Midnight Romance
1919
7.0
When a Girl Loves
1919
NR
Borrowed Clothes
1918
NR
For Husbands Only
1918
NR
The Doctor and the Woman
1918
5.3
Tarzan of the Apes
1918
NR
The Price of a Good Time
1917
NR
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
1917
NR
Even as You and I
1917
NR
The Mysterious Mrs. M
19178.0
Alone in the World
1917
NR
The People vs. John Doe
1916
NR
Wanted- A Home
1916
5.0
Idle Wives
1916
NR
Saving the Family Name
1916
6.0
Shoes
1916
NR
The Eye of God
1916
5.9
Where Are My Children?
1916NR
John Needham's Double
1916NR
The Flirt
1916
NR
Hop - The Devil's Brew
1916
7.0
The Dumb Girl of Portici
1916
5.3
Discontent
1916
NR
Jewel
1915NR
A Cigarette - That's All
1915
NR
Scandal
1915
3.0
Betty in Search of a Thrill
1915
NR
Captain Courtesy
1915
NR
Sunshine Molly
1915
5.6
Hypocrites
1915
NR
It's No Laughing Matter
1915NR
False Colors
1914
NR
The Opened Shutters
1914
7.0
Lost by a Hair
19148.0
The Pursuit of Hate
1914
NR
The Spider and Her Web
1914
NR
The Merchant of Venice
1914
NR
The Jew's Christmas
1913
5.5
How Men Propose
1913
7.0
Suspense.
1913
6.9
The Rosary
1913NR
The Picture of Dorian Gray
191310.0
A Japanese Idyll
1912
NR
The Troubadour's Triumph
191210.0
Eyes That See Not
1912
7.0
Fine Feathers
1912
6.2
The Price
1911NR
Lost Illusions
191110.0
Sherlock Holmes, Jr.
19118.1
Fate
1911
10.0
On the Brink
1911
4.8
The Twins
1911
6.0
From Death to Life
1911
9.0
A Heroine of '76
1911