WHO DO YOU BELIEVE?

When Andrew Jarecki was working on what he thought would be his first documentary, a film about people who work as birthday party clowns in New York, he found out that the most popular of these clowns was none other than David Friedman, son of the infamous child rapist Arnold Friedman. David had a great story to tell and riveting home movies to show. As the Friedman family was disintegrating after the arrest of Arnold and David’s brother Jesse, everything was captured by David’s video camera.

Jarecki knew he was sitting on explosive material. The Friedmans had indeed been captured in every sense of the word.

Loved by his students
Arnold Friedman was one of the most popular teachers in New York, respected by his colleagues and loved by his students. But postal inspectors knew a different side of Friedman. They had kept an eye on him since 1984 when they had opened a parcel shipped from Holland to the beloved teacher, and discovered a magazine with images of men having sex with children. It took the inspectors and the police three years to build a case against Friedman that was strong enough to warrant a house search. Stacks of kiddie porn were found and the police realized that the boys in the computer class Friedman was teaching at home might have been taken advantage of. Soon, the teacher and his teenaged son Jessie were arrested for molesting the students. Eventually, Friedman decided to plead guilty and was sentenced to 10 to 30 years in prison; the next year, Jesse also pleaded guilty and began serving his six to 18 year-sentence. Arnold Friedman committed suicide in 1995 and Jesse was subsequently released after 13 years in prison.

This is one of the famous child molestation cases of the period, but director Jarecki’s film reveals a lot that complicates the case immensely. Viewers are not supposed to know what to think after seeing the film, and Jarecki certainly accomplishes that feat. The case was built entirely on testimonies; there was no technical evidence, no traces of blood and semen, which is strange considering the gruesome details of the case. Only some of the boys in the class testified, others still claim that they don’t believe a word of it.

Turning against the mother
What makes this film so special and so fascinating is of course the home video footage shot by the Friedman boys. The family was strange indeed. Even as it was falling apart, the camera kept on rolling and we get to witness how the boys all rallied behind their father and turned against Elaine, their mother, because she had doubts and was angry at Arnold for what he had done. He was after all, without a doubt, a pedophile and Elaine had every right to be angry. The sons, however, especially David, seemed reluctant even to admit to themselves that little boys arouse their dad sexually.

Watching all this is like peeping through a window into the lives of these people and the experience is disconcerting (but you can’t help yourself). The material doesn’t help us make up our mind. There are moments when I believe in the emotions… and there are times when I just feel manipulated by the Friedman sons and their odd behavior.

Jarecki has done a very good job of mixing the Friedman footage with new interviews with family members and people involved in the case. What emerges is something that looks like it came straight out of Twin Peaks… but no screenwriter could have come up with this absurd concept.

Capturing the Friedmans 2003-U.S. 107 min. Color. Produced by Andrew Jarecki, Marc Smerling. Directed by Andrew Jarecki.

Last word: “I think with respect to the Friedman family, when we went into the film we didn’t know that we were making a movie about this legal case. We just went into hoping to make a film about professional children’s birthday entertainers. When I started understanding an incredible secret story behind the Friedmans, it became more and more clear that there was this hall of mirrors lying behind that initial impression. As we got deeper and deeper into it, we started to see how the story had been altered over time.” (Jarecki, Indiewire)

IMDb