Capturing the Friedmans
|
|
|
The Friedmans – mum, dad and three boys – seem a normal suburban family. But Arnold, a teacher and one-time jazz musician, likes to look at pictures of naked boys. After the postal service intercepts a magazine he’s ordered, police raid the family home. They eventually charge Arnold and his son Jesse with hundreds of counts of sodomizing boys who attended Arnold’s after-school computer classes.
Jarecki’s documentary is an engrossing study of a family in crisis – and the validity of the police investigation. It’s a one-off: the Friedmans obsessively recorded themselves on film, even after the police charges. Jarecki builds his film around their home movies and we learn a lot about them. We know early on about Arnold’s sexuality and there’s a lingering sadness about him. Yet he’s witty, often good fun, and caring – he and his sons get on very well. Jesse, faced with three consecutive life sentences, pleads guilty to get a lesser sentence but is adamant about his own innocence.
Jarecki also presents contemporary TV footage and present-day interviews – with detectives, alleged victims, lawyers and the family. The original police interviews were insistent and suggestive, and this raises questions about social perceptions of sexual orientation. Jarecki doesn’t duck Arnold’s sexual attraction for boys – but was he a rapist? Did Jesse, in turn, become an abuser and rapist? If so, he and the family members and friends who remained loyal to him are brilliant liars.
Capturing the Friedmans shows how beliefs and memories can be fallible and truth elusive, leaving you with nagging questions.
- Product information
- directed by Andrew Jarecki
- Star rating
Join over 10,000 people just like you. Get e-mail updates about new content, issue alerts, contests, and more!
Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
