In recent years, female directors have finally started to receive the recognition they’ve earned. Between Patty Jenkins critically-acclaimed turn on DC’s Wonder Woman to Anna Boden leading Marvel’s Captain Marvel, the comic cinematic universe in particular has embraced female powerhouses. A trend that shows no signs of slowing down with Cathy Yan tapped to lead Birds of Prey, as Cate Shortland tackles the Black Widow standalone. 

But while these female directors have had a great effect on film history, one woman in particular helped to forge advances in the art of film. Lois Weber is cited by many historical references as “the most important female director the American film industry has known,” along with being among “the most important and prolific film directors in the era of silent films.” She is credited with directing 135 films, writing 114, and acting in 100, but how did a girl from a small town in Pennsylvania go on to become the leading female director-screenwriter in early Hollywood? 

Florence Lois Weber was born on June 13, 1879 to a devout middle class Christian family. Considered a child prodigy, Weber was a skilled pianist and had an intense passion for music. Into the early 1900s, Weber had left home and lived in poverty while serving as a street-corner evangelist. She would preach, sing hymns, and play the organ in rescue missions in Pittsburgh and New York. After the church disbanded, Weber went on to perform as a soprano singer and pianist. However, Weber later lost her nerve to play in public after a piano key broke during a recital. 

Having retired from the concert stage, Weber moved to New York City in 1904 and took up acting. For five years Weber was a repertory and stock actress, later joining the road company of “Why Girls Leave Home,” to become a musical comedy prima donna and melodrama heroine. At 25, Weber married the troupe’s leading man and manager Wendell Phillips Smalley. Initially, Weber toured separately from her husband but later accompanied him on his tours, all the while writing freelance moving picture scenarios. She was soon hired by American Gaumont Chronophones to produce phonoscènes, writing and directing alongside her husband. 

By 1910, Weber and Smalley decided to pursue a career in the burgeoning motion picture industry. Across the next five years they worked on dozens of shorts and features for companies like Gaumont, the New York Motion Picture Co., Reliance Studio, the Rex Motion Picture Company, and Bosworth. In addition to writing scenarios and subtitles, Weber acted, directed, designed sets and costumes, edited films, and even developed negatives. Weber acted in and directed her first silent short film, A Heroine of '76, in 1911. 

Throughout her decades-long career, Weber worked on such films as Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, the thriller Suspense, The Jew’s Christmas, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, The Spider and Her Web, The Traitor, Jewel and its remake A Chapter in Her Life, Sunshine Molly, Hypocrites, Scandal, The Dumb Girl of Portici, The Eye of God, Where Are My Children?, The People vs. John Doe, Shoes, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Queen of the Seas, A Midnight Romance and Mary Regan, To Please One Woman, What’s Worth While? Too Wise Wives, and What Do Men Want?, Sensation Seekers, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan of the Apes, The Blot, among many more. 

Weber became the first American female director to establish and run her own movie studio after forming, Lois Weber Productions. She was also the only woman granted membership in the Motion Picture Directors Association. As World War I raged on, Weber served on the board of the Motion Picture War Service Association, alongside Mack Sennett, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, William S. Hart, Cecil B. DeMille, and William Desmond Taylor. 

The pioneer female film director passed away at the age of 60 on November 13, 1939. She is credited with discovering, mentoring, and making stars of several women actors, including Mary MacLaren, Mildred Harris, Claire Windsor, Esther Ralston, Billie Dove, Ella Hall, Cleo Ridgelyand Anita Stewart. Weber also discovered and helped inspire female screenwriter Frances Marion, who went on to be the first writer to win two Academy Awards. 

For her considerable contributions to the motion picture industry, Weber was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Since 2017, the Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival has also given out the Lois Weber Award in her honor. As women continue to gain recognition and prominence within the film industry, its important to remember the powerhouse that was leading the charge all those years ago.