Capturing the Friedmans

May 30, 2003

1h 47m

★ 7.1

Who do you believe?

Overview

An Oscar nominated documentary about a middle-class American family who is torn apart when the father Arnold and son Jesse are accused of sexually abusing numerous children. Director Jarecki interviews people from different sides of this tragic story and raises the question of whether they were rightfully tried when they claim they were innocent and there was never any evidence against them.

Genres

Documentary

Crime

Production Companies

HBO Documentary Films

Notorious Pictures

Magnolia Pictures

Capturing the Friedmans Trailers

Cast

Self (archive footage)

Arnold Friedman

Self

Elaine Friedman

Self

David Friedman

Self

Jesse Friedman

Self (archive footage)

Seth Friedman

Self - Postal Inspector

John McDermott

Self - Ret. Director, Sex Crimes Unit

Frances Galasso

Self - Detective, Sex Crimes Unit

Anthony Sgueglia

Self - Asst. District Attorney

Joseph Onorato

Self - Jesse's Best Friend in High School

Judd Martin

Self - Arnold's Brother

Howard Friedman

Self - Former Computer Student

Ron Georgalis

This documentary takes the viewer on a deeply personal journey into the everyday lives of families struggling to fight Goliath. From a family business owner in the Midwest to a preacher in California, from workers in Florida to a poet in Mexico, dozens of film crews on three continents bring the intensely personal stories of an assault on families and American values.

7.3

The Half-Life of Genius Physicist Raemer Schreiber

Jul 17, 2018

Our two-hour film highlights the life and career of Dr. Schreiber with respect and clarity. Raemer, his wife Marge, and young daughter Paula would move to the high-desert of New Mexico where he and other brilliant minds would change the world forever.

6.0

An Ordinary Hero: The True Story of Joan Trumpauer Mulholland

Feb 15, 2013

The amazing true story of civil rights pioneer Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, An Ordinary Hero is directed by award-winning filmmaker Loki Mulholland, who captures his mother's story and learns about her courage and the role she played in changing American history. As a white girl growing up in the South, Joan witnessed the ugly realities of segregation and racism firsthand and vowed to one day change it. By the time she was 19, she had already joined the Freedom Riders and participated in over three dozen sit-ins and protests. Despite being attacked by angry mobs, put on death row in the notorious Parchman Penitentiary, and coming face-to-face with the KKK, Joan never wavered from her belief that we are all created equal.

4.0

Memory

Jan 1, 2007

Memory is a collaboration with musician Noah Lennox (Panda Bear), exploring the relationship between a musician and filmmaker and their personal reflection on memories. From Super 8 home movies and entirely handmade, this film explores familiar memories, the present moment combined with past experiences and how it all seems to evade from our present memory.

0.0

Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story

Apr 9, 2007

Documentary about brother and sister duo The Carpenters, one of the biggest-selling pop acts of the 1970s, but one with a destructive and complex secret that ended in tragedy.

5.5

Bloody Mama

Mar 24, 1970

Sexually abused as a young girl, Kate "Ma" Barker grows into a violent and powerful woman by the 1930s. She lovingly dominates her grown sons and grooms them into a pack of tough crooks. The boys include the cruel Herman, who still shares a bed with Ma; Fred, an ex-con who fell in love with a fellow prisoner; and Lloyd, who gets high on whatever's handy. Together they form a deadly, bizarre family of Depression-era bandits.

5.8

5 American Handguns - 5 American Kids

Mar 11, 1995

When a child gets hold of a loaded handgun, someone often dies. Last year, 24,000 Americans lost their lives to handguns...and 3,600 of them were children. This profoundly disturbing documentary tells the stories of five handguns that killed five children--and how their deaths might have been prevented.

5.4

Black Mama, White Mama

Jan 19, 1973

When two troublemaking female prisoners (one a revolutionary, the other a former harem-girl) can't seem to get along, they are chained together and extradited for safekeeping. The women, still chained together, stumble, stab, and cat-fight their way across the wilderness, igniting a bloody shootout between gangsters and a group of revolutionaries.

6.4

What The Durrells Did Next

May 19, 2019

Hosted by Keeley Hawes, star of the popular television series The Durrells, this documentary reveals the adventures of the eccentric Durrell family once they left Corfu, Greece.

6.0

Pick up the Wind

Apr 11, 2021

A short film following Anthony, a young child from the small, rural town of San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. We see him in different moments of his daily life as he interacts with different forms of environmental, familial, and social influences. While Anthony displays contradictory traits of creativity, destruction, rigidity, and tenderness as he interacts with his external and internal worlds, we see a story built from the the multidimensionality of Anthony's layered personality as a young man.

10.0

Wintopia

Nov 23, 2019

IDFA and Canadian filmmaker Peter Wintonick had a close relationship for decades. He was a hard worker and often far from home, visiting festivals around the world. In 2013, he died after a short illness. His daughter Mira was left behind with a whole lot of questions, and a box full of videotapes that Wintonick shot for his Utopia project. She resolved to investigate what sort of film he envisaged, and to complete it for him.

6.4

The Price We Pay

Sep 5, 2014

A documentary on the history and present-day reality of big-business tax avoidance, which has seen multinationals depriving governments of trillions of dollars in tax revenues by harboring profits in offshore havens.

0.0

Fancy Like Walker Hayes

Nov 19, 2024

The song "Fancy Like" was #1 in the US in 2021, taking off on TikTok and becoming the anthem of the year with an Applebee’s commercial. Walker and his daughter Lela (who choreographed the dance) explain how that song changed their lives. The documentary is the definitive story of Hayes' life, retracing 17 years of struggling with addiction and loss before this massive overnight success.

0.0

A Common Experience

Jun 13, 2013

A poetic exploration of the multi-generational affects of Canada's Indian Residential School system, based on the personal trials of Aboriginal playwright Yvette Nolan.

0.0

The Changing Face Of Salford Collection

Jan 1, 1970

Between 1968 and 1970, J M Goodger, a lecturer at the University of Salford, made a film record of the living conditions in the slums of Ordsall, Salford, which were then in the process of being demolished. Under the title 'The Changing face of Salford', the film was in two parts: 'Life in the slums' and 'Bloody slums'.

6.8

Fallen

Jan 16, 1998

Homicide detective John Hobbes witnesses the execution of serial killer Edgar Reese. Soon after the execution the killings start again, and they are very similar to Reese's style.

6.1

Ricochet

Oct 4, 1991

An attorney is terrorized by the criminal he put away years ago when he was a cop.

6.7

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

Sep 24, 1986

Arriving in Chicago, Henry moves in with ex-con acquaintance Otis and starts schooling him in the ways of the serial killer.

6.5

Whitney: Can I Be Me

Jan 1, 2017

The life and tragic death of Whitney Houston.

0.0

Behind the Mask

Nov 13, 2023

Survivor Abduweli flees a Chinese Uyghur internment camp to Norway. Now, heading to Germany to confront a past torturer, his daughter’s panic attack forces a choice: exposing Uyghur genocide for the world, or shielding his family from painful memories.