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Capturing the Friedmans
Directed by Andrew Jarecki
The Girl Next Door
Directed by Christine Fugate
A character in an early Grace Paley short story posits, "The truth finds its own level and floats." This cryptic observation could serve as an epigraph for Andrew Jarecki's gripping but enigmatic new documentary, Capturing the Friedmans. The film documents the arrest, prosecution, and incarceration of Long Island teacher Arnold Friedman and his 18year-old son, Jesse, for child molestation. Jarecki's movie gains much of its power from the incorporation of film and video footage that captures several generations of the Friedman family, a clan obsessed with visually immortalizing itself.
On the day before Thanksgiving 1987, the Friedmans-Arnold; his wife, Elaine; and their sons, David, Seth, and Jesse-were startled when police invaded their Great Neck residence. Tipped off by postal authorities that Arnold had purchased European kiddie porn, the cops arrested father and son under the scrutiny of journalists alerted in advance about the bust. Subsequently, Arnold and Jesse were accused of committing dozens of sex crimes perpetrated during computer classes held in the Friedman home.
Although evidence is presented that many of these charges might have been the result of a police witch hunt, both men were convicted and the Friedman family collapsed.
Initially, Jarecki planned to focus his debut feature on the oldest son, David, who has forged a lucrative career as a Manhattan rent-a-clown. But the director altered his subject after hearing about the Friedman scandal, and he had already devoted considerable time to the project before David told him about the family's home movies, which record traumatic events as well as the customary birthday and holiday celebrations. This remarkable footage affords us privileged views of the Friedmans' behavior during the course of the family's tribulations and disintegration. The effect is rather like watching home videos of a Greek tragedy.
Capturing the Friedmans is structured as a mosaic, interweaving excerpts of the Friedmans' footage with...