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Capturing the Friedmans
- Director: Andrew Jarecki
- Producer: Peter Bove; Richard Hankin
CGiii Comment
It's difficult not to think that this is where Solondz's Happiness comes from - this is far more disturbing, simply because...this is real - a real family imploding.
What makes this so special is that it reveals the ambiguity and uncertainty within litigation - especially when there is NO physical evidence.
Home movies reveal the major characters at rest & play - which gives an incredible insight.
But...Arnold Friedman was a self-confessed paedophile and a collector of child pornography.
ILLEGAL - no matter how many protestations that his sons make - rather angrily - YOUR FATHER NEEDED MEDICAL INTERVENTION - not acceptance and/or justification.
This is a deeply flawed legal system - with excessive over-charging and coercive plea bargaining
Should a bargain be offered for a guilty confession? That's how the system works...bizarre.
Will it make a difference? Sadly, no.
What a gruesome world we live in. Sad, very sad.
A fascinating film.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
In the late 1980's, the Friedmans - father and respected computer and music teacher Arnold Friedman, mother and housewife Elaine Friedman, and their three grown sons, David Friedman, Seth Friedman and Jesse Friedman - of Great Neck, Long Island, are seemingly your typical middle class American family. They all admit that the marriage was by no means close to being harmonious - Arnold and Elaine eventually got divorced - but the sons talk of their father, while also not being always there for them, as being a good man. This façade of respectability masks the fact that Arnold was buying and distributing child pornography. Following a sting operation to confirm this fact, the authorities began to investigate Arnold for sexual abuse of the minor-aged male students of his computer classes, which he held in the basement of the family home.
Cast & Characters
Arnold Friedman as Himself;
Elaine Friedman as Herself;
David Friedman as Himself;
Seth Friedman as Himself;
Jesse Friedman as Himself;
John McDermott as Himself;
Frances Galasso as Herself;
Anthony Sgeugloi as Himself;
Chuck Scarborough as Himself;
Joseph Onorato as Himself;
Judd Maltin as Himself;
Howard Friedman as Himself;
Abbey Boklan as Herself;
Ron Georgalis as Himself;
Scott Banks as Himself