Documentary on Loving v. Virginia Looks at Couple Behind Famous Civil Rights Case
For most lawyers, the U.S. Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia is a familiar one. The 1967 decision struck down Virginia’s antimiscegenation statute, which prohibited and criminalized interracial marriage. Now a documentary film is bringing to light the story of the people behind the seminal civil rights decision.
Filmmaker Nancy Buirski says she became interested in making The Loving Story after reading Mildred Loving’s obituary in the New York Times after her death in 2008. “The case was familiar to me,” says Buirski, “but not familiar enough.”
Buirski, who previously ran the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, says she knew from her work that no documentaries had been made about Richard and Mildred Loving, the couple who helped changed history. “Not only was this an overlooked story but also—very often with important legal cases—you read about them and hear about them in law school, but you don’t know very much about the people involved,” she says. “The flesh and blood is often relegated to the background while the legal maneuvering is put in the foreground.”
Continue reading “A True Love Story: Documentary Looks at Couple Behind Famous Civil Rights Case” in the February ABA Journal.
