An American Love Story

Writer/director/cameraperson Jennifer Fox's 10-hour opus (whittled down from 1,000 hours shot over an 18-month period in the early 1990s), which just aired on PBS, chronicles the day-to-day lives of an NYC interracial family: Bill Sims (black), a then 43-year-old struggling blues musician, his wife Karen Wilson (white), a corporate businesswoman (the pair met in 1967 and married in 1979), and their two daughters, Cicily, a 20-year old college student and Chaney, a 12-year-old. What might have been an extensive meditation on race relations packing a definite narrative punch (i.e., a streamlined 3-4 hour film) is, instead, presented as a series of one-hour episodes, each of which loosely revolves around a central dramatic event (Karen's hysterectomy, Bill's hometown visit to Marion, Ohio) or issue (Cicily's negative experience as a bi-racial student at Colgate University). The problem is that not all of these topics warrant a full hour, so viewers are subjected to a lot of filler and repetition (Bill says "family's the most important thing"--a dictum not always reflected in his own personal choices--over and over on the voiceover soundtrack; Karen allows--umpteen many times--that Bill is "very private" and doesn't show his emotions much; Cicily bemoans her life as a bi-racial young woman at college ad infinitum in a style and cadence remarkably similar to other twentysomethings unhappy about their [fill-in-the-blank] problems). Still, the occasional insights--not to mention large doses of humor, ample displays of genuine family warmth, and the underlying message that beneath the surface American families share many similarities regardless of their racial and or societal composition--help offset the many problems (poor editing decisions; a nagging suspicion that Bill, whose music appears throughout, is making the film to get greater exposure for his music [his first CD appeared this past August]; and so on) that make this bloated 10-hour epic such a mixed viewing experience. In short, for the adventurous viewer, An American Love Story has its moments. And here's the thing: they are moments unlike any others you're likely to see on TV (or video) this year. Recommended, with reservations. (R. Pitman)