Victims Say Film on Molesters Distorts Facts

El filme Capturing the Friedmans es parte del Festival de Cine Contemporaneo de la Ciudad de Mexico.


"Capturing the Friedmans," the Oscar-nominated documentary that raises questions about the guilt of a father and son convicted of child molestation, is being criticized by six of their former victims, who say the film omitted or distorted important information about their cases.

The six are suggesting that the director, Andrew Jarecki, created more ambiguity than actually existed about the case both to heighten the dramatic impact of the film and to elicit sympathy for the Friedmans. The film tells the story of the disintegration of a seemingly average Long Island family after the father, Arnold Friedman, and son, Jesse, were accused of molesting children in computer classes they held in the basement of their Great Neck home in the 1980's.

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The film, an Academy Award nominee for best documentary, has been critically praised and brought intense debate at screenings, in editorials and on talk shows about the Friedmans' guilt and whether the case showed failures of the justice system.

Both Arnold and Jesse Friedman pleaded guilty to dozens of counts of child molestation in 1988. Arnold Friedman committed suicide in prison. Jesse Friedman, 34, who served 13 years in prison before being released, recently submitted a motion in Nassau County Court to vacate his conviction, citing disclosures in the film about police evidence that could have helped his case. The court motion has angered former victims and their families who had not previously attacked the film, which was released last May.


Yo realmente pense que era un documental de otra cosa, y por alguna razon que tenia que ver con Krippendorf's Tribe, pelicula de Richard Dreyfuss en la cual el hace el papel de un director de documentales antropologicos de tribus desconocidas. Solo que para salvar sus becas, inventa una tribu, que consiste de su familia pintada como Nuevos Guineos.

Creo que he visto demasiado cine ultimamente trabajando como subtitulador, que aunque no hago coherencia, igual tengo que comentar.

New York Times