Capturing the Friedmans

Theatrical Release Date: 2003 05 30 (USA - Limited)

UPC: 026359227820

Studio: HBO Home Video

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Adult Situations, Strong Sexual Content]

Summary: Arnold and Elaine Friedman were a seemingly typical couple living in Great Neck, NY, in the 1980s. Arnold was an outgoing and well-liked schoolteacher with an interest in electronics who also ran a private computer school out of their home. Elaine, a reserved but caring woman, helped look after the couple's three sons, Jesse, Seth, and David. All appeared to be happy in their lives until November 1987, when police raided the Friedman home after Arnold and Jesse were accused of multiple counts of child molestation. A search revealed that Arnold owned a sizable collection of child pornography, and he confessed to some of the charges placed against him; Jesse, however, firmly insisted he was innocent. As the investigation against the Friedmans went on, public opinion regarding the case became more and more heated, but not all of the testimony against Arnold and Jesse matched up, and some began to wonder just how many of the charges filed against the family had merit. Remarkably enough, in the midst of these crises which threatened to destroy the family from within, the Friedmans continued to take part in one of their favorite pastimes -- shooting home videos of their day-to-day lives, offering a fly-on-the-wall look at a family struggling (and often failing) to hold themselves together in the wake of unthinkable accusations. Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki not only documented the legal and emotional struggles of the Friedman family with his own cameras, but was given access to the family's archive of home videos, and the result was Capturing the Friedmans, a documentary which keeps its primary focus on the Friedman family while also investigating the merits or faults in the charges levied against them. Capturing the Friedmans received an enthusiastic reception in its screening at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Category: Culture & Society

Awards: Documentary Grand Jury Prize – Sundance Film Festival Best Documentary – San Francisco Film Critics Circle Best New Filmmaker – Boston Society of Film Critics Best Documentary (Runner-up) – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Documentary Feature – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Documentary – National Board of Review Freedom of Expression Award – National Board of Review Best Documentary – Toronto Film Critics Association Best Documentary – Chicago Film Critics Association Most Promising Filmmaker – Chicago Film Critics Association Best Documentary – New York Film Critics Circle Best Documentary Feature – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Presented – Sheffield International Documentary Festival

Features: ccFilmmaker audio commentary
Theatrical trailer
English, French, and Spanish subtitles
Unseen home movies from inside the Friedman house
"Great Neck Outraged" featurette
New witnesses and evidence
Uncut footage of the prosecution's star witness
Friedman family scrapbook and hidden audio tapes
The original short film that led to the discovery of David Friedman's secret story
"Jesse's Life Today" featurette
An altercation at the film's New York premiere
The Judge speaks out at the Great Neck premiere
A special ROM section with key documents from the family and the case

Capturing the Friedmans

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 01/27/2004

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Alternate Wide Screen

Audio: DS Dolby Surround (4.0)

Runtime: 235 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 2

Language(s) English

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 -- Capturing the Friedmans
1. Meet the Friedmans [10:10]
2. Behind the Piano [8:39]
3. The Computer Room [11:59]
4. Community Outrage [10:17]
5. "My Story" [10:52]
6. Our Gang [11:44]
7. Arnold's Plea [9:51]
8. Jesse's Decision [10:09]
9. The Road to Dannemora [12:48]
10. "Not the Way It Was Supposed to End" [8:44]

Elbert Ventura

Andrew Jarecki's debut feature is a devastating portrait of the collapse of an American family, not to mention a fascinating meditation on film, memory, and truth. Jarecki's project originally started out as a documentary on David Friedman, Manhattan's most popular party clown. As he dug deeper into his subject, however, Jarecki struck gold, unearthing the messy pedophilia scandal that destroyed the Friedman family. Jarecki's serendipity did not end there: In addition to being a compelling subject, the Friedmans turned out to have been inveterate home-video hounds. Comprised of old Friedman footage, news clips from the period, and recent interviews with the family, the movie proves to be a remarkable work of assemblage. Jarecki reconstructs the events that led to the imprisonment of Arnold, the Friedmans' patriarch, and Jesse, one of the three Friedman boys, on sexual abuse charges. Rummaging through the family's attic, Jarecki cobbles together an incisive document that suggests that the two were victims of a media feeding frenzy and mass hysteria in their Great Neck, NY, community. No less an act of distortion is David's father worship. Years after the scandal, the eldest of the Friedman sons still remains convinced of his father's decency -- despite Arnold's undisputed possession of child pornography and his own admission that he had committed pedophilia twice before (but never in Great Neck). A study of the American obsession with personal drama and the examined life, Capturing the Friedmans also emerges as a Rashomon-like rumination on the slippery nature of truth. The closer Jarecki looks, it seems, the less we see. While Jarecki's manipulative editing begs the question of just how much of that obscurity is the director's work, the awful drama of the Freidmans' downfall is unmistakably genuine. Jarecki's stabs at metaphysical import may be transparent at times, but it hardly mars the emotional impact of this heartbreaking film. ~ Elbert Ventura, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Andrea Morricone  Composer (Music Score) 
Marc Smerling  Producer 
Andrew Jarecki  Director 
Andrew Jarecki  Producer 
Arnold Friedman  Actor 
Elaine Friedman  Actor 
David Friedman  Actor 
Seth Friedman  Actor 
Jesse Friedman  Actor 
Howard Friedman  Actor 
John McDermott  Actor 
Frances Galasso  Actor 
Anthony Sgueglia  Actor 
Joseph Onorato  Actor 
Judd Maltin  Actor 
Judge Abbey Boklan  Actor 
Ron Georgalis  Actor 
Scott Banks  Actor 
Debbie Nathan  Actor 
Jerry Bernstein  Actor 
Peter Panaro  Actor 
Lloyd Doppman  Actor 
Jack Fallin  Actor 

Country: USA