Capturing The Friedmans

Released: March 25 2004
Cast: Arnold, Elaine, David, Jesse & Seth Friedman
Director: Andrew Jarecki
Genre: Documentary
Rated: MA 15+
Running Time: 107 Minutes

Awards (Not a totally comprehensive list!):
*** 2004 Academy Award Nominee ***
Best Documentary - 11 Best Documentary prizes

*** Grand Jury Prize ***
2003 Sundance Film Festival

Who do you believe?

Synopsis:
The Friedmans seem at first to be a typical family. Arnold Friedman is an award-winning schoolteacher, his wife Elaine, a homemaker. Together, they raise their three boys in the affluent Long Island town of Great Neck. One Thanksgiving the family is gathered at home preparing for a quiet holiday dinner, and in an instant, a police battering ram splinters the front door and officers rush into the house searching every corner, seizing boxes of the family's possessions. Arnold and his 18-year old son Jesse are both arrested, led away in handcuffs through a maze of newsmen, lights cameras, and trucks assembled in their front yard.

As a convoluted investigation unfolds, father and son are indicted for hundreds of shocking crimes. While the family vehemently declares its innocence, the Great Neck community is in an uproar, and the Friedmans are the target of their rage.

The film follows their story - from the public's perspective and, most remarkably, through unique footage of the family in crisis shot contemporaneously by family members inside the Friedman house.

As the police pursue the investigation, and the community reacts, the fabric of the family begins to disintegrate, revealing disturbing question about justice, community, family, and - ultimately - truth.


My Verdict:
Whether you believe the Friedman's are innocent of the charges or not is irrelevant, what is relevant however, is the story of the family and the events that took place. It is coincidence that Jesse Friedman decided to document his family life by way of a movie camera. Sometimes it's not clear whether what we see is hammed up for the camera or if it is just how the Friedman family really were. Either way, they are indeed a very unique family, some also say very dysfunctional too.

Archival footage is blended with present day interviews to try and re-create the events. The middle son, Seth, refused to be interviewed for the documentary although he is still included in the early footages. Oldest son, David, is still confused over the events, maintaining his family's innocence to the nth degree. It is almost ironic that he now makes his living as a clown. He believes that his father died of a heart attack, even when the coroners report concludes an anti-depressant overdose. Denial is what he seems to be suffering from, or is he? The question of guilt versus innocence is tossed about continually depending on who is being interviewed.

'Capturing the Friedmans' is a fascinating story but it also makes for a very sad story. Sad in the sense that no matter what really did happen, this family and the community were immensely divided over the issue, never to be the same. So many lives were altered - perhaps someone, somewhere knows the truth? It is certainly a movie that will stay with you a while and give you questions for thought.

Rating : B+


- Christina Bruce