Factual America examines America through the lens of documentary filmmaking. Guests include Academy Award, Emmy and Grammy-winning documentary filmmakers and producers, their subjects, as well as experts on the American experience. Find out more about the current and upcoming documentaries on Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Sky Documentaries and other platforms directly from the creators. Whether we discuss true crime, music, burning social and political topics, history, or arts, Factual America is your #1 documentary film podcast. Factual America is produced by Alamo Pictures, a London- and Austin-based production company that makes documentaries about the US from a European perspective for international audiences.
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episode 15: The Hart Family Tragedy
The Hart Family had the perfect American life. At least, that is what their social media accounts showed the world. But the reality was very different.
A Thread of Deceit: The Hart Family Tragedy documents a family’s spiral into abuse and despair. Ultimately, Jennifer and Sarah Hart decided to drive their family SUV off a cliff, killing them and their six adopted children.
How could this happen? The Harts’ social media accounts were full of beautiful images – playing in the garden with the kids, trips out on a frozen lake or cozy nights by the fire. And everyone thought they were living the perfect American life.
As the film reveals, however, Jen and Sarah Hart carefully curated their family’s online personas. As a result, they were able to hide a life of mental illness and abuse. That life eventually led to the tragic loss of their six innocent children.
We caught up recently with the filmmakers, producer Rachel Morgan and executive producer Chuck Lewis. As they point out, A Thread of Deceit: The Hart Family Tragedy provides us with valuable lessons about social media, our society and the American adoption system.
Rachel and Chuck note that our society’s addiction to social media is damaging our mental health.
“This story needed to be told. There were a lot of people speculating, a lot of very strong feelings.” – Chuck Lewis
Time Stamps:
02:19 – What ‘A Tread of Deceit: The Hart Family Tragedy’ is about and what it teaches us.
02:52 – How our guests are handling the lockdown conditions.
04:21 – The tragic story behind the film.
05:59 – What caused this tragedy to happen.
08:32 – The first clip: The Hart children.
12:59 – Who are the interviewees and what are their connections to the story.
14:07 – What the documentary really is about: social media addiction.
17:32 – The second clip: the psychological effects of social media on the family.
21:39 – How the filmmakers managed to get access to family footage.
23:34 – How Rachel got involved with the production of the film.
26:33 – How Chuck got involved with the project.
28:46 – The backlash to the film and its effects on Rachel and the filmmakers.
32:00 – The timeline for producing the film.
32:43 – Why people choose to ‘troll’ these types of films.
36:00 – Some of the problems with the adoption system in America.
39:10 – The different lessons that the film provides.
41:43 – The final clip: the pitfalls of social media.
43:51 – Who Christopher Worth is, and how he brings people together.
46:20 – How the release of the film went.
47:16 – Where the film can be streamed.
48:22 – What Chuck’s goal is looking into the future.
A Thread Of Deceit: The Hart Family Tragedy
Worth Music
Alamo Pictures
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