Lois Weber, early female director from Pittsburgh, getting attention in new documentary

Did you know Hollywood's first female director was from Pittsburgh?

Thankfully, folks like Pitt grad Benjamin Alfonsi are around to remind us.

He, along with actress Elizabeth Banks, produced the documentary "Yours Sincerely, Lois Weber," which tells the story of Hollywood's first female director — a native Pittsburgher.

The documentary on Weber's life will be screened at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 28 at Pittsburgh's August Wilson Center as part of the Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival .

Weber was born in 1879 in Allegheny City (what's now the North Side). A musical child, Weber would sing as a street corner evangelist with the Church Army Workers, a sort of Salvation Army style group, trying to get prostitutes to change their wicked ways.

She and her husband, Phillips Smalley, moved to California and began working in the movie industry. Weber would write the scripts, direct and perform in one-reel shorts for studios like Gaumont and Reliance. In 1914, she became the first female to direct a full-length feature, "The Merchant of Venice."

Weber was big time in Hollywood. She was highly regarded in the industry, being mentioned alongside directors of the era like D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille. In all, she made more than 200 films from 1908-34.

Writes the New York Times: "An auteur before that word entered the cinematic lexicon, she wrote, directed and edited films and was admired for her sensitive work with actors, her on-set meticulousness and her stories about women."

Read more about Weber at the Women Film Pioneers Project .

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