Capturing The Friedmans

I finally got the chance (thanks to my Netflix) to view this 2003 documentary. While not for everyone, if you are interested in the finer points of documentary filmmaking, I urge you to see this. The film follows the travails of an upper-middle-class family in the affluent suburban community of Great Neck, NY as the father and son are accused and later convicted of numerous charges of child molestation. 

The director, Andrew Jarecki, used much of the family’s home movies for this, creating a disturbing portrait of a dysfunctional family. You’ll find yourself haunted by the images and the thought-provoking content for days afterward. And you’ll be left with no simple, straightforward answer to the question: Did it really happen? or….Did SOMEthing terrible happen? I was blown away by this film. Though Michael Moore is our current documentarian de jour, I find his “in your face” style distracting and annoying to say the least. He places himself too much in the center of his films (“Look at me!!” “I have an important point to make.”) In my mind, the director should step aside and leave the audience to draw their own conclusions — conclusions which are sometimes undefinable or … uncomfortable. If you do see this film, I strongly urge you to follow that up with a careful study of the companion website: Capturing The Friedmans, where you can view additional legal documents and affidavits that help to further elucidate the veracity or lack thereof of the charges against them. It’s a frightening look at a period of time when peoples’ lives were ruined by false, or inaccurate, charges on a grand scale. I live in southeastern Washington state, and several years following this and the McMartin incident, the notorious Wenatchee sex ring was often in our headlines. I recall the mixed feelings of horror that something like this could happen to children and the undercurrent of disbelief — that this might be a fantastic concoction of lies. If you’re looking for challenging material that will make you THINK (and maybe squirm a bit), then I urge you to check this out!