Film Screening of TV Family with Director Dr. Ethan Thompson

South Texas Cinematheque and the Department of Communication and Media at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi will host a screening of the documentary “TV Family” on Friday, April 29, at 6 p.m. at the Art Museum of South Texas.

“TV Family” shines a spotlight on a long-lost television documentary and the family who starred in it in 1960. Produced 50 years before “reality TV” became ubiquitous, NBC's “Story of a Family” documented the lives of the 10-member Robertson family of Amarillo, Texas. “TV Family” features rare footage from the program alongside new interviews with the Robertsons, who describe their memories of the shoot, and the ways in which the program reflected and distorted their lives. Also featuring interviews with leading media scholars, this investigation of one TV family becomes a window into the limitations of television and representations of family in midcentury America.

The screening is free and open to the public and will be followed by a question and answer session with family members who appear in the film and the original series and filmmaker Dr. Ethan Thompson, Associate Professor of Communication and Media at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. For more information, visit http://www.tvfamilydoc.com.