Capturing the Friedmans
Steward 1
Melissa Steward
Research Essay
English 367.01
12/8/04
Capturing the Friedmans
"Home movies are about innocence--our lost fuzzy, glowing personal pasts, all horseplay, and funny hats and the promise of youth" (Cooper, 23). Andrew Jarecki's remarkable film, Capturing the Friedmans captured just what is clearly a case study of extreme family dysfunction through such home videos. At first Andrew Jarecki just wanted to do a nice little documentary about clowns. He decided to try film making and thought he would cut his teeth on something easy like birthday party clowns. He had met David Friedman a top childrens birthday party clown from Manhattan, New York. Much to his surprise David Friedman had a much more interesting story to tell. David's father Arnold, and younger brother Jesse were both convicted of sex crimes against children who attended computer classes in their basement. After watching this spellbinding documentary by Jarecki, I was intrigued by the many cinematic and narrative techniques used in the film to effectively tell the tragic story of one family. This film not only made its audience sympathize with each member of the family at one point or another during the the course of the film, but it also made us change our viewpoint several times as well. Capturing the Friedmans had its very own voice, imagery, and film editing. The film was very entertaining, not because of the special effects implemented by the filmmaker, but due to the archival footage taken by the family itself. Jesse had documented many of his family's activities and conversations with his video camera. For example, in the beginning of the film the viewer in the beginning of the film starts to see many images of home movies being played and paused with sub text to show the main characters who are to be presented in the film. These freeze frames paint a picture of an all-American family promoting a certain sense of
Melissa Steward
Research Essay
English 367.01
12/8/04
Capturing the Friedmans
"Home movies are about innocence--our lost fuzzy, glowing personal pasts, all horseplay, and funny hats and the promise of youth" (Cooper, 23). Andrew Jarecki's remarkable film, Capturing the Friedmans captured just what is clearly a case study of extreme family dysfunction through such home videos. At first Andrew Jarecki just wanted to do a nice little documentary about clowns. He decided to try film making and thought he would cut his teeth on something easy like birthday party clowns. He had met David Friedman a top childrens birthday party clown from Manhattan, New York. Much to his surprise David Friedman had a much more interesting story to tell. David's father Arnold, and younger brother Jesse were both convicted of sex crimes against children who attended computer classes in their basement. After watching this spellbinding documentary by Jarecki, I was intrigued by the many cinematic and narrative techniques used in the film to effectively tell the tragic story of one family. This film not only made its audience sympathize with each member of the family at one point or another during the the course of the film, but it also made us change our viewpoint several times as well. Capturing the Friedmans had its very own voice, imagery, and film editing. The film was very entertaining, not because of the special effects implemented by the filmmaker, but due to the archival footage taken by the family itself. Jesse had documented many of his family's activities and conversations with his video camera. For example, in the beginning of the film the viewer in the beginning of the film starts to see many images of home movies being played and paused with sub text to show the main characters who are to be presented in the film. These freeze frames paint a picture of an all-American family promoting a certain sense of
Bibliography: Capturing the Friedmans. Dir. Andrew Jarecki. Perf. David Friedman, Jesse Friedman, and Elaine Friedman. Magnolia Pictures, 2003. Pollitt, Katha. "Subject to Date." Nation 18 March 2002: Volume 274, Issue 10. Academic Search Premiere. The Ohio State Lib., Columbus. 15 November 2004 . Shapiro, Laura, and Debra Rosenberg. "Rush to Judgement." Newsweek 19 April 1993: Volume 121, Issue 16. Academic Searhc Premiere. The Ohio State Lib., Columbus 15 November 2004 .