Capturing the Friedmans

A very good and an acclaimed documentary on the Friedman case that took place in Long Island in the early eighties directed by Andrew Jarecki. It is an interesting case-study of an American family falling apart, when the head of the family, the father - Arnold Friedman is accused of paedophile charges and to the horror of all horrors, his youngest son, Jesse is also accused of the same charges.

There is a wealth of home video material which went in to the making of this documentary because of Arnold Friedman, a home video enthusiast and later his eldest son David, who decides to document the whole trial process. Arnold Friedman had definite paedophile tendencies but he denies having carried out his advances to children anywhere near the home he lived, in his computer class or the suburban community which turned his main accusers in the case. But its Jesse who takes your sympathy, wrongly accused for a crime he didn't commit, then spend 13 years of his prime life behind the bars and come back to the society at the age 31 with a label as a child molester. Even in the most dysfunctional family, nobody could have had it worse. A very rivetting and objective documentary, justifies its Oscar nomination.