2008 Woodie Awards
'The Friedmans' captures audience
Tanya Ludlow
Issue date: 9/26/07 Section: Features
Tolstoy opens his novel "Anna Karenina" with the line, "All happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Then there are the Friedmans.
"Capturing the Friedmans" is a documentary chronicling the destruction of a small family in Great Neck, New York, in which a father and son were accused, and plead guilty, to heinous acts of sexual abuse against young boys- and that's just the beginning.
Through extensive interviews with lawyers, the police involved, and the victims themselves, the truth behind the actual events begin to take on an unsettling visage. That the patriarch of the family- a much loved teacher for decades and admitted child porn collector and pedophile- is a monster is clear.
What is unclear, however, is if he committed the acts he was tried for. Even less clear is the role of his 18-year-old son Jesse, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his role in the abuse.
The victims themselves give contradictory statements. Some claim that nothing inappropriate happened in the home, others speak of sex games so lurid they defy the limits of credibility; and that's the problem. Statements are so contradictory that it is clear that someone is lying. What in the hell happened in that house?
Much of the documentary features footage of interviews years after the 1987 investigation and trial. However, the eldest son David provides home videos that reveal this family at its most desperate, and those scenes are the hardest to watch.
The denial, hostility, desperation and fear are palpable. Why someone would videotape a last family dinner before their father pleads guilty to sodomy and sex abuse is unclear. David's vocation as a clown (in fact a very popular clown in Manhattan) might have something to do with it.
Are you not intrigued? In case you aren't, I summon you to see this documentary before the genre is completely hijacked by pompous windbag politicians and strident celebrities, whose zeal for their causes is only surpassed by their adoration of themselves.
Then there are the Friedmans.
"Capturing the Friedmans" is a documentary chronicling the destruction of a small family in Great Neck, New York, in which a father and son were accused, and plead guilty, to heinous acts of sexual abuse against young boys- and that's just the beginning.
Through extensive interviews with lawyers, the police involved, and the victims themselves, the truth behind the actual events begin to take on an unsettling visage. That the patriarch of the family- a much loved teacher for decades and admitted child porn collector and pedophile- is a monster is clear.
What is unclear, however, is if he committed the acts he was tried for. Even less clear is the role of his 18-year-old son Jesse, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his role in the abuse.
The victims themselves give contradictory statements. Some claim that nothing inappropriate happened in the home, others speak of sex games so lurid they defy the limits of credibility; and that's the problem. Statements are so contradictory that it is clear that someone is lying. What in the hell happened in that house?
Much of the documentary features footage of interviews years after the 1987 investigation and trial. However, the eldest son David provides home videos that reveal this family at its most desperate, and those scenes are the hardest to watch.
The denial, hostility, desperation and fear are palpable. Why someone would videotape a last family dinner before their father pleads guilty to sodomy and sex abuse is unclear. David's vocation as a clown (in fact a very popular clown in Manhattan) might have something to do with it.
Are you not intrigued? In case you aren't, I summon you to see this documentary before the genre is completely hijacked by pompous windbag politicians and strident celebrities, whose zeal for their causes is only surpassed by their adoration of themselves.
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