My whole life, I’ve considered myself a pretty well rounded and knowledgeable film fan. From the Best Picture winners and the Star Wars franchise to the odd Hungarian or even Tunisian film. However, when it comes to Lois Weber, I was completely blindsided. Though not given the same praise as her contemporaries, she was one of the most popular filmmakers during the 1910s and took the opportunity to make what she felt were important films. Her name may not be familiar to you but her accomplishments are impressive.

So far, the women I have focused on in this series have benefited greatly from the advent of the women’s liberation movement. Sure, the women working in the 1960s and 70s had to carve out their own path with very little help, but the women who came before had to machete their way through the rigid Old Hollywood system. Ida Lupino was such a woman. Often forgotten in conversations about great women directors, Lupino was the only working woman director in the 1950s and the first to direct a film noir movie.

Agnes Varda is arguably the most important director to come out of the French New Wave even if her name is often overshadowed by Godard, Truffaut, or even her own husband, Jacques Demy. She brought documentary experimentalism, social commentary, and compassionate care for her characters. Commonly referred to as the mother of the New Wave, Varda’s achievements should not be swept under the rug especially, when you consider that in her 90 years of life, she never stopped producing compelling work; something many of her peers cannot say.