Capturing the Freedmans
Since I am a fan of documentaries, we picked one that none of us had seen. The film was called Capturing the Freedmans.
This film, for those that remember back in the late 80s, is a documentary about an upstate New York Jewish family that had a dark secret. Of course, through the documentary, you start to question just how much information the police actually had. To be specific, the family was made of three brothers, a husband and a wife. Back in 1986, the husband, Arnold, was a renowned computer teacher, who taught students at his home. David, Seth and Jesse, the three brothers, are illustrated as very loyal sons.
But the dark secret comes out. Arnold is charged with intent to distribute child pornography. The police show up, and end up finding a small stash of magazines imported from Europe. Through their investigation, the Freedman's worst nightmare begins to come true. A majority of the students begin to claim that they had been sexually molested, though no proof could be offered. After two years of classes, none of these students ever exhibited physical evidence of harm, and not a single one had spoken to their parents, or demonstrated emotional distress.
What's worse, one of the sons, Jesse, is also charged with these crimes. Both father and son have a combined charge count of over 400. This documentary, taken mostly from stock footage of news, as well as home videos taken by David (almost all the family discussions, and fights were recorded on a camcorder.) It's a very powerful film that illustrates the power of the media, and the true weakness of eye-witness testimony. All that was needed to convict these two men were the testimonies of the children. Without any physical evidence, both David and his father Arnold end up in prison.
This is one of those head-scratcher films that really calls into question what can happen to people regardless of what the truth may be. I'd suggest it if you're interested in a strange tale. The technical aspects are solid, and well edited. The testimonials provided in the documentary are somewhat swayed against the mother of this family, Elaine; however, it certainly does a good job illustrating the sheer chaos that destroyed the Freedmans in the late 1980s. A decent little story that will make you wonder: can it happen to me?
7 of 10.
This film, for those that remember back in the late 80s, is a documentary about an upstate New York Jewish family that had a dark secret. Of course, through the documentary, you start to question just how much information the police actually had. To be specific, the family was made of three brothers, a husband and a wife. Back in 1986, the husband, Arnold, was a renowned computer teacher, who taught students at his home. David, Seth and Jesse, the three brothers, are illustrated as very loyal sons.
But the dark secret comes out. Arnold is charged with intent to distribute child pornography. The police show up, and end up finding a small stash of magazines imported from Europe. Through their investigation, the Freedman's worst nightmare begins to come true. A majority of the students begin to claim that they had been sexually molested, though no proof could be offered. After two years of classes, none of these students ever exhibited physical evidence of harm, and not a single one had spoken to their parents, or demonstrated emotional distress.
What's worse, one of the sons, Jesse, is also charged with these crimes. Both father and son have a combined charge count of over 400. This documentary, taken mostly from stock footage of news, as well as home videos taken by David (almost all the family discussions, and fights were recorded on a camcorder.) It's a very powerful film that illustrates the power of the media, and the true weakness of eye-witness testimony. All that was needed to convict these two men were the testimonies of the children. Without any physical evidence, both David and his father Arnold end up in prison.
This is one of those head-scratcher films that really calls into question what can happen to people regardless of what the truth may be. I'd suggest it if you're interested in a strange tale. The technical aspects are solid, and well edited. The testimonials provided in the documentary are somewhat swayed against the mother of this family, Elaine; however, it certainly does a good job illustrating the sheer chaos that destroyed the Freedmans in the late 1980s. A decent little story that will make you wonder: can it happen to me?
7 of 10.
posted by Admin at 5:46 PM
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