"Doing a ‘Man’s Work’ " - Karen W. Mahar

     How could one write an essay about an influential female artist without paying homage to America’s first female actress, screenwriter, producer and director; Lois Weber?  Being anything more than a house wife, bare foot and pregnant in the early 1900’s was a phenomenon, considering women were not even allowed to vote; one of many civil rights not granted for woman. In an era where most all women were conditioned to believe that their only use in life was to take care of their husbands, homes and children, Weber had a much different plan. Weber started off acting as a stock actress, where she eventually would resign after realizing how superficial he roles where.  In 1917 Weber became the first woman to own her own film studio. 

     Known for her unique writing style and directing, Weber also seemed to push the boundaries on very controversial topics and some of her directing techniques proved very shocking for the times. "Along with D.W. Griffith, Lois Weber was the American cinema’s first genuine auteur a filmmaker involved in all aspects of production and one who utilized the motion picture to put across her own ideas and philosophies." - Anthony Slide (film historian) Weber was known to be be a rebel in the writing blocks, however, one of her most controversial films was "Hypocrites".

http://lois-weber.blogspot.com/

Below is an exerpt from the website above, giving a brief description of the movie "Hypocrites" 

"Hypocrites is an amazingly complex film in both narrative and technique, following the parallel stories of an early Christian ascetic and a modern minister, with most actors in dual roles. Gabriel (Courtney Foote) is a medieval monk who devotes himself to completing a statue of "Truth," only to be murdered by a mob when his work turns out to be an image of a naked woman. The contemporary Gabriel is the pastor of a large urban congregation for whom religion is a matter of appearances, not beliefs. The hypocrisy of the congregation is exposed by a series of vignettes in which the Naked Truth, literally portrayed by a nude woman, reveals their appetites for money, sex, and  power.
Hypocrites was a shocking and controversial film whose release was held up for many months by the difficulty of distributing a film with full nudity. Weber's sincerity and reputation allowed her to use something that in the hands of a male director would have been considered scandalous and immoral. Widely admired at the time for extraordinary use of multiple exposures and intrica"

Callahan, Vicki. Reclaiming the Archive: Feminism and Film History. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2010. Print.

Mahar, Karen Ward. Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2006. Print.

Slide, Anthony. The Silent Feminists: America's First Women Directors. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 1996. Print.