Join silent film historian Dr. Veronica Johnson for an exploration of trailblazing filmmaker Lois Weber, one of the most influential figures of early cinema.

The most successful female director of her era, Weber was celebrated for weaving together social critique, moral dilemmas, and intimate human stories in ways that helped shape the silent screen.

This event features a screening of Weber’s powerful melodrama Shoes (1916), a stark and compassionate portrait of poverty and desperation. Shoes tells the story of a shopgirl that is too poor to buy a pair of shoes and is tempted to prostitute herself to get money. She falls ill after walking in the rain with her broken pair of shoes. In the end, she accepts the offer of a man she meets in The Blue Goose club. The next evening, she follows him to a ‘flat for rent’.

Music accompaniment by Mia Fitzgerald (piano).