_ Video Vérité - The Films of Alan and Susan Raymond


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In 1973 an American family made television history. In the winter of 1973 a faithful weekly audience of ten million viewers followed the first reality TV program of the Loud family of Santa Barbara, California. An American Family, a 12 hour cinema vérité series broadcast on PBS, chronicled the unfolding drama of one family’s life and captured highly sensitive moments as the husband and wife filed for divorce and the eldest son publicly affirmed his homosexuality. A shocked and fascinated American public became intimately involved with the seven members of the Loud family while the media extensively examined and pilloried the family. The result was the creation of the first media celebrities who had simply been themselves on television.

American Family Revisited is a ten-year update on the Loud family and their reflections on becoming the first reality tv stars. Filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond, who filmed the original 12 hour cinema vérité series and spent seven months recording over 300 hours of film, revisited the Loud family a decade later for a new family profile. The Raymonds had continued their friendship with the family members over these past ten years and knew that their unique experience of becoming media celebrities, coupled with the effects of a family’s divorce, had changed them in many ways. The filmmakers wanted to explore a first-hand report from each family member on how they were affected by these two dramatic life experiences.

PRESS

“It’s fascinating to see the Louds again. The Raymonds have put together a montage of what it means to be a TV celebrity in America.”
- Marvin Kitman, Newsday

“Anyone who was intrigued by the original series will find this irresistible!”
- John Voorhees, Seattle Daily Times

“Television so often rings the door bell and runs; faces come and go in an instant. “American Family Revisited” provides a history in television.”
- Stephen Reddicliffe, Dallas Times Herald

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