THE LOVING STORY
by Nancy Buirski
SYNOPSIS
A racially-charged criminal trial and heart-rending love story converge in this documentary about Mildred and Richard Loving, a black woman married to a white man against the law in 1950’s Virginia. Thrown into rat-infested jails and exiled from their home for 25 years, the Lovings fought back and changed history. They were paired with two young lawyers driven to pave the way for equal rights through a historic Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia. Told through luminous cinema verité footage and rare photos, this film takes us on a journey into the heart of race relations in America.
DETAILS
77 mins
2011
USA
English
TRAILER
CREDITS
Director: Nancy Buirski
Producer: Nancy Buirski, Elisabeth Haviland James
Script: Nancy Buirski, Susie Ruth Powell
Cinematographer: Rex Miller, Steve Milligan
Editor: Elisabeth Haviland James
BIOGRAPHY
DIRECTOR - NANCY BUIRSKI
Nancy Buirski is the founder and was the director of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, the acclaimed international festival based in Durham, NC. Buirski produced five collections of documentary shorts in collaboration with Docurama and The Katrina Experience, a collection of feature-length documentaries for libraries and schools. She served as the executive producer of Pangea Day Film Content. She is currently the producer of Althea and Harlem Woodstock and she produced Time Piece, an innovative cross-cultural omnibus documentary combining stories of Turkish and American filmmakers. Following The Loving Story, Buirski directed Tanaquil Le Clercq: Afternoon of a Faun. Prior to her work in film, she was a documentary photographer, writing and photographing Earth Angels: Migrant Children in America, and the foreign picture editor at The New York Times.
SELECT FESTIVALS
TRIBECA 2011〡FULL FRAME 2011〡SILVERDOCS 2011〡HAMPTONS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2011〡HEARTLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2011〡THESSALONIKI 2012
PRESS
"A perfect time capsule that illuminates the racist past of our country with a uniquely personal and poignant emphasis."
- The Hollywood Reporter
"In a rich collection of 16-millimeter film, old news clips and still photographs, the Lovings don't look like two people caught up in a cause, they seem like two people caught up in each other."
- The New York Times
"Using evocative photographs, newly unearthed footage and interviews with Lovings' daughter and lawyers, the film reveals the power of love to overcome bigotry."
- The Huffington Post
"Documenting many pivotal moments in the case, it adds a dash of something rarely seen in the grand narrative of the American Civil Rights struggle: romance."
- Chicago Sun-Times
"The most romantic and moving documentary of the year."
- Bust Magazine
"Above all, the film harbors a lingering sense of personal agency. If the Lovings teach us nothing else, it's that anyone can change the course of history."
- International Documentary Association
"Their story is a powerful statement about freedom."
- The Washington Post