AN AMERICAN FAMILY: ANNIVERSARY EDITION
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Directors Alan Raymond and Susan Raymond in attendance
Before the Kardashians, Bachelors and Bachelorettes, Real Housewives, and Survivors, came The Louds—the first reality TV family. Debuting on January 11, 1973 on public television, this groundbreaking cinéma vérité documentary series made parents Pat and Bill Loud and their five children household names. During the seven months that they lived in front of the camera, viewers watched dramatic life events unfold, including Pat asking for a separation from her husband, and their gay son, Lance’s bohemian lifestyle in New York.
In the course of its 12-week run, AN AMERICAN FAMILY riveted the country and drew in a record 10 million viewers a week. In 2011, filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond, who shot the original series, produced AN AMERICAN FAMILY: ANNIVERSARY EDITION, which distills the series into its most memorable moments.
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Academy Award®-winning filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond are among America’s most influential and distinguished independent documentary producers and directors. As the filmmakers of the seminal 1973 PBS cinema vérité series AN AMERICAN FAMILY, the Raymonds captured the daily life of the Loud family, which foreshadowed America’s rising divorce rate and the emergence of the gay liberation movement. TV Guide designated the series as “one of the 50 Greatest TV Programs.” Other films of theirs include: THE POLICE TAPES, which won an Emmy Award®; HOW DO YOU SPELL MURDER?; CHILDREN IN WAR, which received a Prime Time Emmy® for Outstanding Informational Special in 2000; and I AM A PROMISE: THE CHILDREN OF STANTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, which won the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature, a Prime Time Emmy®, Peabody, and DuPont Awards.