Documentary MY DARLING VIVIAN: The True Story of Vivian Liberto, Johnny Cash’s First Wife – Virtual Cinema Release starts June 19th

Rewriting Hollywood’s fictionalized version of events, My Darling Vivian tells the true story of Vivian Liberto, Johnny Cash’s first wife and the mother of his four daughters. This acclaimed new documentary feature had its world premiere at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival and played other top festivals. Click Here for All Virtual Cinema Bookings

A story that was lost or misinterpreted to serve a myth comes to life in this revealing new film that is painful but compassionate, wrenching but true.

In 1951, Catholic schoolgirl Vivian Liberto meets handsome Air Force cadet Johnny Cash at her local San Antonio, Texas skating rink. Their whirlwind summer romance lays the foundation for a feverish three-year-long correspondence while Johnny is stationed in Germany. Thousands of letters later, the two marry upon his return in 1954. Within a year, a career blossoms and a family is started. By 1961, Johnny Cash is a household name, number one on the music charts, and perpetually on tour. Meanwhile, only two weeks postpartum, Vivian settles into their custom-built home in Casitas Springs, California with their four young daughters. Plagued by bobcats, rattlesnakes, all-hours visits from fans, and a growing resentment toward her husband’s absence, Vivian is pushed to a near breaking point when she and her daughters are targeted by hate groups over her perceived race. In My Darling Vivian, we will meet the first Mrs. Cash as her daughters, Rosanne, Kathy, Cindy, and Tara, share with us first hand, for the first time, the entire story of love, isolation, fear, heartbreak, and survival.

My Darling Vivian has the unique advantage of exclusive, unprecedented access to a wealth of never-before-seen footage and photographs of Vivian Liberto and Johnny Cash, as well as to their daughters themselves. Rosanne Cash, Kathy Cash Tittle, Cindy Cash, and Tara Cash Schwoebel chronologically trace Vivian’s romantic, wrenching, and dizzying journey, shedding light on the undeniable marks that were left.

The critics love MY DARLING VIVIAN:

“Thoroughly engrossing, often heartbreaking…looks at the promising beginnings and turbulent end of Liberto’s romance and family life with Cash via intimate, never-before-seen footage, photographs, and a wealth of personal letters the two wrote to each other while Cash served in the military.”
– Stephen L. Betts, Rolling Stone

“Brings a woman erased into vivid focus. An engaging and revelatory film that’s also deeply affecting…relates a little-known love story, great in its own right – and immortalized in Cash’s “I Walk the Line.” And it offers a nuanced portrait, loving but not fawning, of a complex woman.”
– Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter

“An exceptional documentary…a fascinating and affecting corrective counterpoint to the Johnny Cash mythos.”
– Joe Leydon, Variety

Director’s Statement:
“For nearly fifty years, Vivian Liberto felt she had been silenced and erased, so it is truly a gift to be able to bring her story into the homes of viewers across the country.”
– Matt Riddlehoover, Director of My Darling Vivian