Cinema Verite

In 1973, the Loud family became a television sensation of a new kind. It was long before a metal rock star showed his eccentric family on the small screen and decades before housewives had screaming matches with each other on camera in public. Cinema Verite tells the behind-the-scenes story of the groundbreaking 12-hour PBS documentary series An American Family, which chronicled the lives of the Louds in the early 1970s and catapulted the Santa Barbara family to notoriety while creating 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.  Cinema Verite debuts Saturday, April 23 (9:00-10:45 p.m. ET/PT).