Surviving Family
2012 film

Surviving Family is a 2012 American drama about the effects of mental illness and alcoholism on the fictional Malone family. It was directed by Laura Thies and written by Mara Lesemann. The film stars Billy Magnussen, Sarah Wilson, Tara Westwood, Bill Sage, Johnny Hopkins, J. D. Williams, Vincent Pastore, Phyllis Somerville, and Katherine C. Hughes. Surviving Family premiered at the 2012 Woods Hole Film Festival, where it was the Runner Up for the Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature.
It was released on iTunes on August 15, 2014.
Plot
Surviving Family counterpoints romance and comedy as it examines the dramatic role of alcoholism, mental illness, and suicide in the lives of the fictional Malone family.
Terry Malone shows up unannounced on her father's doorstep - with her fiancé and a plan to get married in five days. She learns that she's not the only one in the family with secrets. As Terry struggles to rebuild her relationship with her older sister Jean, she learns that her young niece Lily has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. With the help of her Aunt Mary, Terry must come to terms with the truth behind her mother's suicide and her father's alcoholism.
“Surviving Family” enters the record as 2012 film. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Surviving, Family and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Surviving Family” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Surviving, Family and film provides the most credible route into that argument.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21528090. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2012 and 2014.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Surviving Family”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Surviving Family primary sources, Surviving Family archive and Surviving research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Surviving Family”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Surviving Family” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.