Ms. Fox took 1,000 hours of videotape to film it, staying with the family much of the time. She weaves together the tale through eyewitness interviews and the family's personal reflections in a masterly pattern revealing psychological depth. But something deeper comes through - a sense of meaning in daily life, of decency and courage in adversity, and individual strength of character. The Wilson-Sims family lets us see more of themselves and their frailties than most of us would want our friends to know, let alone America at large. And though sometimes viewers may feel perilously close to voyeurism, the insights gained drive them to consider their own lives, social attitudes, self-deceptions, and blindness to the suffering and struggles of others.
Racism lives on in America and is more complex than ever.
In that documentary, the Loud family of Santa Barbara, Calif., disintegrated before our eyes. It was a frightening experiment. But none of it is easy. The couple remember how badly they were treated when they first started dating, and how Bill Sims was arrested repeatedly for dating a white girl in Marion, Ohio. Karen Wilson was ostracized by her high school classmates for dating an African-American.