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An American Love Story
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List Price: $59.95
Our Price: $34.95
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Product Details
- Starring: Cicily Wilson, Bill Sims, Chaney Sims, Karen Wilson
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- Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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- Binding: VHS Tape
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- Director: Jennifer Fox (III)
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- EAN: 9780767019873
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- Format: Box set, Color, NTSC
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- ISBN: 0767019873
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- Label: New Video Group
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- Manufacturer: New Video Group
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- Number of Items: 5
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- Product Group: Video
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- Publisher: New Video Group
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- Release Date: 1999-09-13
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- Studio: New Video Group
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- Theatrical Release Date: 1999-09-12
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- Title: An American Love Story
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- UPC: 733961552133
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Avg Customer Rating: 
Product Description: An American Love Story will undoubtedly inspire comparisons to other "real life" programming, such as Real World and An American Family. But what differentiates this PBS documentary is that rather than just aiming the camera at one family and letting it run, director Jennifer Fox has given this film a specific focus: a year and a half in the life of an interracial family. Bill Sims is a musician and a househusband. He is a caring father, although his drinking is problematic. He is African American. Karen Wilson earns the money, working in a human resources department. She suffers terribly from endometriosis and faces a hysterectomy. She loves her children, although she can be overprotective. She is white. Their two daughters, Chaney (age 12) and Cicily (age 20), have to deal with all the issues other adolescents deal with (boys, school, job hunting), but with the added element of being biracial. The Wilson-Sims family is immensely likable; Karen, especially, seems to be someone you would enjoy chatting with over coffee, with her sardonic sense of humor and her tough outlook. But the heart of this series is not in the 25-year relationship of the couple, but in the identity issues that are felt most strongly by Cicily. Yes, the family suffers the same problems we all do: Chaney's desire to date, Karen facing her impending inability to have more children, a parent's difficulty in letting go of her children. But Cicily, as the child of a mixed couple, faces problems alien to most of us; when attending the mostly white Colgate University, she finds herself alienated from the black community. These feelings are worsened on a semester abroad to Nigeria, where the whites and blacks polarize, and Cicily finds herself forced to choose. Director Jennifer Fox shot over 1,000 hours for this 10-hour documentary, including hundreds of hours of interviews, which she interlaced with the footage, often using as narration. The 10 individual episodes are arranged thematically, each containing a specific story line. While at times the editing could be a little tighter, we enter completely into the family, and it's the quiet moments that allow us to get to know the Wilson-Sims family so well, as we see their personalities and quirks. This long documentary is well worth the time investment, as it not only provides an eye-opening look at multiculturalism in the U.S., but tells a touching story of a family you can't help but like. --Jenny Brown
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Customer Reviews
A movie everybody should watch
When I started watching this film I didn't know really it would be so long, but I must confess I couldn't stop. It was already 5am and I couldn't take my eyes out of the screen.Being a Brazilian, I grew-up in a country where the most normal thing is to see marriages in between blacks and whites, Orientals and whites, Orientals and blacks, etc. Even having an European background I do feel myself partly African, Italian, Japanese, Jewish, etc. All these people together with our native Indians built my country. I'm proud to be part of it and feel grateful for the extensive cultural knowledge I've learned from it. I believe we all are equal, doesn't matter if you're white, black, yellow, red or even blue. This movie shows the live of a 'mixed' couple in a very sensitive, clear way. It doesn't favour any side. It shows that we all breathe the same air, we all have the same problems. Let's not complicate by creating new problems! Bill and Karen are parents as every parent out there. As my grand-mother would say: "Parents are all the same. They only change addresses". It doesn't matter the colour; the concerns are the same. After you watch this movie, you might start loving blacks and whites the same way. They did an excellent job with this movie. I would recommend it to be shown in schools throughout America. Why not throughout the whole world! The whole world can learn from it, not only Americans. Once again, I congratulate Mrs. Jennifer Fox, family Wilson-Sims and team for this great job. This film is now one of my favourites.
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A really great film!
I really loved this video. If you like docu-dramas you will love this. After the first hour you will feel like you know these people yourself. You will be compelled to want to form opinions and feelings about the issues. Very well done. Something more people in america need to see. A very real look at race relations in the US.
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Highly entertaining, very educational but not hokey.
The most wonderful quality of "An American Love Story" was that it was highly entertaining and subtly educational without getting hokey. Initially, I felt ten hours was too much time for me to sit and watch anything, least of all some documentary dealing with racism. But I was quickly drawn in and taken on a wild ride. I am a 31 year old white male from a highly affluent community. In spite of the wealthy zip code, my family was quite middle class. I graduated from an expensive college, but only after $10K in student loans. The racism in my town was invisible. You didn't see it because there were no minorities in my town. Unlike so many other films and tv shows addressing this topic, I didn't feel like the "bad white person" being hit over the head. Nor did I feel that all these characters did was complain without trying to help solve a complicated problem. Rather, I learned that what the subjects of "An American Love Story" seemed to want most was to live their lives like the rest of us. Before seeing An American Love Story, I didn't think I knew people like this. Afterwards, I was surprised to discover my own racism but inspired to think that perhaps I could change myself. I hope someday we can stop using the terrible word "minority". If I am the majority, then I must be honest and say the "majority" has made life unnecessarily difficult for this American family.
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