This three-part program (see also Friday, October 8) looks at the work of women directors active in the American silent film industry. Anthony Slide, whose books include “Early Women Directors,” will introduce the program and discuss the contribution of women to the silent cinema. Among the films to be screened are works by Alice Guy Blaché, Cleo Madison and Ruth Ann Baldwin, and the series will concentrate on the work of Lois Weber, the most influential and important of women directors of any decade, whose films in the 'teens and early Twenties were considered some of the best and most controversial produced by the American cinema. Two Lois Weber features--The Blot and Too Wise Wives, both released in 1921--as well as a Baldwin Western, '49-'17 (1917)--will be screened in their entirety.
In addition, Pacific Film Archive is proud to have as its guest at the 7:30 p.m. screening on Friday Margery Wilson, the sole surviving woman director from the silent era.
Too Wise Wives
Lois Weber wrote and directed this unusual 1921 drama that approaches marital problems from a woman's point of view. The story involves an overly devoted wife whose businessman husband wearies of her constant attempts to please him--until she successfully intercepts another woman's play for him.