Frances Marion

The first talkie was directed by Alice Guy, the first color film was produced by Lois Weber, who directed more than 300 films over 10 years. Frances Marion wrote screenplays for the Hollywood Star Mary Pickford and won two Oscars, Dorothy Arzner was the most powerful film director in Hollywood. And what do all of them have in common? They are all women and they have all been forgotten. Incredibly, it also took until 2010 for the first woman, Kathryn Bigelow, to win the Oscar for Best Director. Even if underrepresented women have always played a big part in Hollywood and it is this part of the film history left untold that this documentary sets out to uncover.

From 1915-1939, Frances Marion was one of the most powerful talents in the movie industry. In one of the most liberating eras for women in film, she wrote more than 200 movies and was the world's highest paid screenwriter - man or woman. Kathy Bates gives voice to Marion's words from her letters, diaries, and memoirs. Includes commentary by silent film historian Kevin Brownlow, critic Leonard Maltin, and Marion's celebrated biographer Cari Beauchamp. Current women filmmakers reflect on the legacy left to them by Marion and the pioneering women of early Hollywood.

A lost film. A girl with old-fashioned values becomes a modern sophisticate.

An ambitious New York socialite plans an extravagant dinner party as her businessman husband, Oliver, contends with financial woes, causing a lot of tension between the couple. Meanwhile, their high-society friends and associates, including the gruff Dan Packard and his sultry spouse, Kitty, contend with their own entanglements, leading to revelations at the much-anticipated dinner.

Life in 1847 Paris is as spirited as champagne and as unforgiving as the gray morning after. In gambling dens and lavish soirees, men of means exert their wills and women turned courtesans exult in pleasure. One such woman is Marguerite Gautier, who begins a sumptuous romance with Armand Duval.

Camille is a courtesan in Paris. She falls deeply in love with a young man of promise, Armand Duval. When Armand's father begs her not to ruin his hopes of a career and position by marrying Armand, she acquiesces and leaves her lover. However, when poverty and terminal illness overwhelm her, Camille discovers that Armand has not lost his love for her.

A broken-down alcoholic prizefighter struggles to keep custody of his adoring son.

Ahmed, son of Diana and Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan, falls in love with Yasmin, a dancing girl who fronts her father's gang of mountebanks. She and Ahmed meet secretly until one night when her father and the gang capture the son of the sheik, torture him, and hold him for ransom.

Mimi, an orphan, is taken in by a drunken innkeeper and becomes a domestic. She meets Rudolphe, scion of a well-to-do family, who rescues her from the unwanted advances of a drunken hotel guest. They fall madly in love, but Rudolphe's uncle, M. Durandin, wants Rudolphe to marry a family friend, Madame de Rouvre, and writes Mimi a letter, telling her that she is ruining Rudolphe's life. Musette and Marcel, friends of Mimi, also try to break up the romance by introducing Mimi to other men, and Rudolphe becomes jealous and leaves her. Brokenhearted, Mimi declines in health and eventually throws herself into the river but is rescued and taken to the hospital. Realizing it is only a matter of time before she dies, she drags herself back to the room where she and Rudolphe were happiest. Rudolphe is there and she dies knowing that he loves her.

Young Leon Kanter dreams of being a great violinist. His parents scrape up the money for a violin and for lessons, and Leon rewards them by becoming a great player. But as an adult, Leon finds that people want more from him than just music.

A young woman marries the wastrel son of a British aristocrat. Her husband, who has been disinherited by his father, loses what little money he has left gambling in casinos and then dies, leaving her penniless and with an infant son. When her former father-in-law tries to get custody of the child, she leaves him with a couple she trusts, but when she later goes to reclaim her son, she can't find the people she left him with.

Two men who bear a striking resemblance to each befriend each other while stationed in France during WWI. One is fatally fatally wounded and requests makes a dying request to his doppelganger to take on his identity.

When Letty Mason relocates to West Texas, she finds herself unsettled by the ever-present wind and sand. Arriving at her new home at the ranch of her cousin, Beverly, she receives a surprisingly cold welcome from his wife, Cora. Soon tensions in the family and unwanted attention from a trio of suitors leave Letty increasingly disturbed.

Romantic melodrama of musical comedy star Juliette La Monde's thoughtless pursuit of love and pleasure with various men until her ultimate redemption through sacrifice.

In the 1860s, Mary Marlowe defies her father's wishes to marry a British lord and runs away with clerk John Carlton as he heads West to make his fortune. Mary and John endure the difficult journey and settle into a small cabin, then face the hostilities of a cattle rustling gang, as well as the tragic loss of their only son. With Mary's help, John defeats the gang, which propels him to political power that, over the years, gradually erodes the once-happy marriage.

A group of adventurers head deep into South American jungle in search of an ancient Incan treasure.

Old sailor Chris Christofferson eagerly awaits the arrival of his grown daughter Anna, whom he sent at five years old to live with relatives in Minnesota. He has not seen her since, but believes her to be a decent and respectably employed young woman. When Anna arrives, however, it is clear that she has lived a hard life in the dregs of society, and that much of spirit has been extinguished. She falls in love with a young sailor rescued at sea by her father, but dreads to reveal to him the truth of her past. Both father and young man are deluded about her background, yet Anna cannot quite bring herself to allow them to remain deluded.

A young Chinese woman saves an American man washed up onto the shore and the two fall in love, only for him to have second thoughts.

The story of two feuding Irish immigrant families living in a tenement.

In Puritan Boston, seamstress Hester Prynne and kindly Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale fall in love. After Dimmesdale must go away for a time to England, he returns to discover that Hester has given birth to their child and is the focus of local censure.

Young minister Brand Cameron meets stage star Adrienne Durant at her father's humble country home. Believing her an innocent country girl, Cameron falls in love with her. She confesses her racier life and returns to New York. Cameron follows, unable to give Adrienne up, his parishioners denounce him and force him to resign. He departs, accepting a post in a tough lumber camp while Adrienne accepts the charge of a school for poor children. Later Faro Kate falsely accuses Cameron of fathering her child enraging the lumbermen who set fire to his church. Discovering Kate's baby is trapped inside Cameron risks his like to save the child causing Kate to retract her lie and Adrienne comes to join him in his new ministry.

New York City tenement dwelling neighbors Blondie and Lottie are longtime best friends. When Lottie makes the cast of the Follies and moves up in the world, she arranges for Blondie, as well, to join the cast and gain the advantages. But the friendship goes awry when Lottie's sweetheart, wealthy Larry Belmont, falls for Blondie and she for him.

A housewife divorces her self-centered husband. Years later, she attends a party where her ex is pursuing another woman. Unbeknownst to him, she is the same ex-wife he'd neglected, now transformed into a fashionable socialite.

Ilda Barosky, a Jewess whose father was killed by Russian soldiers, is a violin student in love with Alexis Nazimoff, son of the Russian aristocracy. Alexis' father arranges a marriage of convenience between Alexis and Olga Karischeff, the daughter of the ambitious minister of police and attempts to shame Ilda at the betrothal celebration. Defiant, Ilda is whipped before the entire assembly. Alexis rushes in to rescue her and terminates his engagement to Olga. In retaliation, Karischeff sentences both Ilda and Alexis to ten years in Siberia as his last official act. The couple attempt to escape their Siberian captivity, are caught and face a firing squad until Count Nazimoff, who has assumed Karischeff's position as minister of police, arrives with a pardon. The couple return home, and the penitent count finally grants them his blessings.

Fisherman Dutch marries cannery worker Hattie. After he is kicked out of his union and fired from his job he leaves Hattie who steals money for him and goes to jail. He gets a new job, foils a plot to dynamite the ship, and promises to wait for Hattie.

Mountain boy Steve O'Mara, living in the Adirondack Mountains, who loves to fight, is taken in by a well-to-do family after the death of his foster father. Steve is attracted by a young girl, Barbara, who is visiting his family, but she is repelled by his violent behavior.

The secret formula for the world's most powerful explosive has been stolen from the U.S. government. William Brown, a clerk who aspires to be a detective, has just received his badge from some anonymous Midwestern agency, and manages to get himself embroiled in the intrigue.