HBO Canada, a multiplex channel of Corus Entertainment’s Movie Central (Western Canada) and Astral’s The Movie Network (Eastern Canada), presents the HBO Film Cinema Verite, Saturday, April 23 at 9 p.m. ET/MT, day-and-date with HBO in the U.S. The film gives a dramatized look at the events surrounding the creation of the groundbreaking documentary An American Family, which chronicled the lives of the Louds in the early 1970s and catapulted the Santa Barbara family to notoriety in the creation of a new genre – the reality TV series.
Oscar®, Golden Globe and Emmy® nominee Diane Lane, Oscar® and Golden Globe winner Tim Robbins and Golden Globe and Emmy® winner James Gandolfini star in the HBO Films presentation, directed by Oscar® nominees Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini and written by David Seltzer. The film also stars Patrick Fugit, Kathleen Quinlan, Lolita Davidovich, Shanna Collins and Thomas Dekker.
Cinema Verite examines how the groundbreaking PBS series An American Family was created by filmmaker Craig Gilbert (James Gandolfini), who felt that the Loud family’s struggles were relatable to viewers in a way that popular, scripted TV families, such as those portrayed in The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family, were not. The series was filmed by husband-and-wife crew of Alan and Susan Raymond (Patrick Fugit, Shanna Collins), who spent seven months with the Louds in 1971. The result was a total departure from the television shows of its time, and thrust a middle-class family into the spotlight as America witnessed the parents’ (Diane Lane, Tim Robbins) struggle with marital issues while raising five children. The Louds were unprepared for the scrutiny that would follow the show; in particular, mom and wife Pat was publicly criticized for her support of openly gay son Lance (Thomas Dekker), at a time when homosexuality was rarely represented on television.
Cinema Verite will be broadcast in High Definition, and will be available on demand following their network premieres. In Eastern Canada the series will be available via HBO Canada OnLine with Rogers, Bell TV and Videotron and in Western Canada via HBO Canada Online with Shaw Video On Demand and Bell TV Online.
HBO Canada is a multiplex channel offered by Astral’s The Movie Network (Eastern Canada) and Corus Entertainment’s Movie Central (Western Canada).
