Capturing the Friedmans

Description

Nominated for Best Feature Documentary at the 2004 Academy Awards, this unusual and disturbing documentary charts the scandal that surrounded the Friedman family from Long Island in the 1980s. Arnold, a well-respected schoolteacher, and his wife Elaine were a seemingly typical middle class couple who, along with their three boys, enjoyed making home movies of their daily lives. Their world was shattered in November 1987 when the police raided their home after Arnold and his eldest son Jesse were accused of multiple counts of child molestation. Arnold’s home computer was found to contain a sizeable collection of child pornography. But how much truth was there behind the tide of allegations against the family? Andrew Jarecki pieces together footage from the Friedmans’ home videos, news clips from the time and recent interviews with the family to assemble this thought-provoking film, which asks as many questions as it answers – and paints an intimate and devastating portrait of the collapse of a family.