Where Are My Children? (Lois Weber, Phillips Smalley, USA, 1916) Jon Mirsalis on Piano Throughout the silent period, Lois Weber, a social worker turned film director, produced brilliant but controversial "missionary pictures" in which anti-Semitism, opium smuggling, capital punishment, alcoholism were addressed with candor and dramatic prowess. Where Are My Children?, co-directed with her husband Phillips Smalley, manages a curious balance, defending birth control while condemning abortion. The film focuses on a district attorney with a sincere interest in eugenics as a curative for social ills. He himself remains childless as his "social butterfly" wife has paid numerous secret visits to an abortionist. From the opening titles, Weber declares the film's risqué subject, as cherub-like infants float by the "portals of Eternity." There are the "chance children," the "unwanted souls," and those "marked with the approval of the Almighty." Where Are My Children? met with adversity throughout its journey across the country-the chief censor of Pennsylvania described it as "unspeakably vile," Brooklyn's district attorney led a personal crusade to "stamp out pictures that deal with sex problems"-but it generally emerged unscathed. Note: Two reels are missing from this rare print.