HBO Home Entertainment will release the Emmy-nominated TV movie Cinema Verite on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download April 24 (order date March 20).

The film chronicles the making of the 1973 PBS documentary “An American Family,” the landmark series often credited as the beginning of reality TV by following the lives of the family of Bill and Pat Loud.

Cinema Verite stars Diane Lane, Tim Robbins and James Gandolfini. Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini directed from a script by David Seltzer.

The DVD ($19.97) and Blu-ray ($24.99) include a “Making of Cinema Verite” featurette and commentary from directors Berman, Pulcini and Lane.

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Added 8 scans from the magazine.

Thanks to my friends, Qua & Holly we now have HQ stills & captures from the film.

The HBO movie focuses on the true, behind-the-scenes story of “An American Family,” the 1973 PBs series that is widely regarded as the very first reality show. By extension, the family the series focused on — aptly named the Louds — became the prototype for the Osbournes, Simmonses, Kardashians and every other reality family that’s followed it.The meta aspect of the production — there was “a camera crew filming a camera crew,” as Lane explained Tuesday night — made for a layered, somewhat complicated production.

Lane and her co-star, Thomas Dekker, spoke to about 200 people at the Landmark Theater in West Los Angeles after a screening of the 90-minute pay TV film. The screening and panel discussion, moderated by TheWrap’s editor-in-chief, Sharon Waxman, were part of TheWrap’s Emmy Screening Series.

From May to December, 1971, a PBS crew filmed about 300 hours of the family’s life, ultimately condensing it to a dozen episodes.

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