SLIFF 2017 – Silent Classic THE BLOT Accompanied by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra November 12th

“In my young days gentlemen did not smoke while conversing with ladies and they removed their hats!”

THE BLOT (1921) screens Sunday, Nov. 12th at 7:30pm at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. The silent film will be accompanied by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra. Also shown will be the 6-minute short YOURS SINCERELY, LOIS WEBER by Svetlana Cvetko. Ticket information can be found HERE

The pioneering Lois Weber was one of the first women to direct films, and SLIFF honors the filmmaker by screening a recent restoration of her silent “The Blot,” which addresses the all-too-relevant issue of income inequality. The local Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra has created an original score for the film and will perform it live. In the film, Professor Griggs teaches the unmotivated sons of the rich and powerful, but he fails to make a living wage. The professor’s next-door neighbor, businessman Peter Olsen, has abundant money and food, while the Griggs have almost none. When one of the professor’s wealthy students, Phil West, and the impoverished Rev. Gates both fall for young Amelia Griggs, Phil recognizes the disparity in their lives and tries to do something to change it.

THE BLOT’s title refers to society’s disregard for teachers and the clergy. THE BLOT is an unabashed soft-hearted melodrama about class struggle, taking sides with the poor working-class over the idle rich. It’s directed by one of the few Hollywood woman directors, Lois Weber who was at the time the highest paid woman filmmaker in the business. She was married to filmmaker Phillips Smalley, who was involved with this film project as assistant director; most of the 80 films Lois Weber directed were lost, which is why she’s all but been forgotten except by film historians. Lois’s concerns were usually in social conscious issues and those of a women’s place in modern society. THE BLOT connected with the mostly middle-class audience who identified with the heroine and it proved to be a big box-office hit.