What Do You Plead?

posted on june 10, 2003, tag: entertainment

Over the weekend we made a trip to the Angelika to see Capturing the Friedmans, a documentary about a family destroyed by child pornography and molestation charges in the late 80s. It was this years Grand Jury Prize winning film at Sundance, and with good reason.

CTF was the epitome of a well-made documentary. Directed by Andrew Jarecki*, this documentary relies heavily on family films shot during the time all of these terrible allegations came out. Where a normal family would have buckled down and turned to hiding and secrecy, the Friedmans' sons continued to film home movies and record audio of arguments. The footage is remarkable, since it ranges in subject matter from Seder to the day before Arnold Friedman, the father, is to plead guilty or innocent.

If you have the chance to see this, you should. If nothing else, it gives you a very intimate look at a family dealing with something so terrible it is almost incomprehensible. It's a fair documentary, and really does what it does well. For more information, see Ebert's Review and the Sundance '03 Film Note.

* Jarecki has done some really strange things other than this film. He was the co-founder of MovieFone.com, and co-wrote and performed the theme song for the TV show Felicity. Weird.