The American documentary ‘Çapturing the Friedman’s’ was, in its own way, a frightening experience. How to describe it?! It’s a documentary that hones in on a middle-upper class family in Long Island, New York, and provides a startling portrait.

A buzz phrase in pop psychology is the notion of dysfunctional families. Director Andrew Janecki’s portrait of the Friedman family is of extreme dysfunction.The Friedman family home is raided by the police, and father, respected and award winning school teacher Arnold Friedman and youngest son, Jess, are handcuffed and led into custody, with television cameras filming the event. Arnold and Jess Friedman are charged with hundreds of pedophile offences.

Janecki’s film captures the Friedman family as the whole familys world unravels. There is nothing remotely comfortable about this documentary. It involves more than cerebrally and detachedly viewing newsreel footage and interviews with different people involved.

The Friedman family, and especially patriarch Arnold, loved making home movies. The family gave Janecki access to all their videos. The stunning thing is that the family continued to keep the camera rolling at the time of the arrest, and for many years after. The audience sees the family from the inside out. It makes the documentary a lot rawer.

I saw ‘Capturing the Friedman’s a few weeks ago, and I can’t shake it. There are moments and images that stick! Go see, and you’ll know what I mean.
Be haunted. I was, above all, by the face of Arnold Friedman. He looked like such a typical, ordinary man. He has such an ordinary look, and yet he is responsible for so much suffering.