Paley Center for Media Presents CINEMA VERITE

The Paley Center for Media is happy to present the New York premiere of HBO's new film, Cinema Verite, starring Diane Lane, Tim Robbins, and James Gandolfini, which takes an incisive look at the behind-the-scenes story of PBS's groundbreaking An American Family, the very first reality TV series-thirty years before The Osbournes and Jon and Kate Plus 8-that has proven to be one of the top landmark media events ever. In 2002, TV Guide named An American Family among "The Top 50 Greatest Shows of All Time." That twelve-part series, which recorded the everyday lives of the Loud family, anticipated the reality television explosion as well as the contemporary desire to reveal private secrets on the Internet.

Directed by the team responsible for American Splendor, Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, Cinema Verite dramatically captures the nuances of "Me Decade" individuals like producer Craig Gilbert (James Gandolfini) and Pat Loud (Diane Lane). With evocative performances by Tim Robbins as the serial adulterer Bill and Thomas Dekker as Lance, one of the first openly gay characters ever on television, the film illuminates the travails of a family unprepared for such media exposure. After the screening, the filmmakers will discuss the film and how this Santa Barbara family paved the way for the reality movement.

An American Family Screenings

Saturday, April 30, 2011
to Saturday, May 7, 2011
12:15 pm ET
New York

FREE for Paley Center Members.
Included with admission for the general public.

PBS's An American Family was a twelve-part documentary series that recorded the everyday lives of the Loud family from May 30 through December 31, 1971. Producer Craig Gilbert spent many months to find that one family in over fifty million available in the early seventies that would serve as the real-life counterpart of such idealized TV families as Father Knows Best and The Donna Reed Show. Pat and Bill Loud were a handsome, affluent couple with five children, living in Santa Barbara, California. More than three-hundred hours of their family life was shot on 16mm film. Although there were various story lines in An American Family, the dominant themes were the marital problems of the parents and the flamboyant lifestyle of the eldest son, Lance. Divorce was a novel topic for prime time, and few TV viewers had ever encountered an openly gay man before. An American Family opened up the institution of the family and issues of gender, sexuality and interpersonal relationships for public discussion, becoming a touchstone for a new generation of documentary and reality producers later on.

An American Family has never been distributed on DVD and the Paley Center is pleased to screen the entire series over two weekends.