Capturing The Friedmans DVD

Advantages: Compelling, brilliant and disturbing
Disadvantages: The subject matter will distress some

What’s not difficult when reviewing ‘Capturing the Friedmans’ is telling you it’s an extraordinary, fascinating and moving piece of cinema. What’s extremely difficult is reviewing it without telling you how I feel about the events depicted in the documentary, whether I believe the family we watch disintegrate are responsible for the shocking crimes they are accused of. However, since Andrew Jarecki has succeeded in depicting the facts without telling ...
...the same. Andrew Jarecki wanted to make a film about clowns, the kind of clowns that your parents hire to perform at your birthday party, since David Friedman is the number one party clown in New York he was the obvious choice as subject. What Jarecki didn’t know when he started making this film is that by interviewing David he would uncover an entirely different story which would transform his documentary into one of the most challenging and critically ... Read review

Advantages: An unusual approach to a complex set of issues
Disadvantages: Upsetting crimes, and unsettling footage

...Manhattan. ******************************************************************************************************** Released on 9th April 2004, Capturing the Friedmans is rated 15 in the UK and is available as a 2 disk DVD set to rent. It is directed by Andrew Jarecki and won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. ... Read review

Advantages: Gripping,
Disadvantages: none, as to the film itself, some may find the topic disturbing.

“Capturing the Friedmans”, released in 2003 and directed by Andrew Jarecki details the disturbing account of the paedophile charges made against Arnold Friedman and his 19 year old son Jesse, in 1988. This film is another in the trend towards a documentary style, and is fairly unique in that it consists mainly of old footage both shot by the family in what were presumably happier times, and also filmed on video by the elder brother David Friedman, ...
...two family members in the late 1980s. This arrest itself happened on a Thanksgiving reunion, with the older boys returning home for the celebrations. The Friedman’s live in a middle class suburb of Long Island, known as Great Neck, and seem to fit into that role fairly well. Dad, married to Elaine, is a school teacher who also runs piano, and later, computer classes at home, and they have three sons – David, Seth and Jesse. The crimes against Arnold ... Read review

Advantages: Documentary film making at its most interesting
Disadvantages: Incomplete - probably intentionally

2004 seemed to be the year of the documentary – Super size me, Fahrenheit 9/11, all have left their mark. Here’s one documentary, actually released in the previous year, which, in common with these two, received heaps of acclaim. It was Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2003 Sundance Festival, among other things. << What is it about? >> Andrew Jarecki’s movie began life as a short film, a profile of David Friedman, who works as a clown in New ...
...successful in his trade, and Jarecki felt it was worth making a film about. But in the end “Capturing the Friedmans” became a full blown movie about the whole Friedman family. During the course of filming David Friedman, Jarecki became aware that his father (Arnold Friedman) had been at the centre of a child abuse case in the 80s. Arnold taught computer classes to young boys, and there were allegations that he had molested, even raped, several ... Read review

Advantages: The story will keep you transfixed
Disadvantages: The subject matter may not be for some

...common as a summer blockbuster, Capturing The Friedmans is several notches above even the best of the current crop. In a similar way to The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, the actual nature of Capturing The Friedmans is not what the filmmaker, Andrew Jarecki, intended. He initially set out to make a film about the business of being a clown in New York, now part of the DVD release’s extras. One of the clowns he was following and interviewing for ...
...his childhood brings an edgy response and an unguarded comment of “There are some things I don’t want to talk about”. This was the catalyst for what became a very non-judgemental account of what happened to the Friedmans back in 1984. Through the clever mixing of the Friedman family’s own video footage, news reports from the time and contemporary interviews, Jarecki draws the audience into the crux of the story - whether or not Arnold and his son ... Read review