Capturing+the+Friedmans+-+Group+1B

Some background information -


 * The film was originally supposed to be a documentary about birthday clowns from New York City until the director, Andrew Jarecki, met David Friedman and discovered his secret.
 * The film took three years to make
 * The director claims to have made as balanced a documentary as possible

Who believes Arnold Friedman is guilty of child molestation?


 * Surprisingly, when polled, the seminar group almost unanimously voted that he was not guilty - or at least they were not convinced of his guilt.

Perspective vs. Commentary - The method which the documentary text offers a particular point of view of the world vs. how a documentary offers a statement about the world - a more direct form of argument. "Capturing the Friedmans" predominantly uses perspective.


 * The family doesn't really fit in within the Great Neck community. This is shown through comments made during the interviews such as "this is a wealthy community", which is then juxtaposed with footage of the Friedman's mediocre house, inexpensive car, and the fact that we as the audience know that Arnold was teaching computer classes in his basement (presumably to make extra money).
 * The locations for the interviews - the way the shots are framed and the backgrounds chosen for each interview offers an indirect statement about the person being interviewed.

Degree of Knowledge - How much do the people on screen know?


 * No one on screen knows the whole story. This fact makes it impossible for the audience to have all of the pieces of the puzzle. The person with the most information in the film is the director, which allows him to manipulate the information and the order in which it is presented in order to shape the audience's opinion.
 * Jesse and David both express a desperation to know that something had happened in order to bring a kind of logic to the situation
 * Elaine says "I don't know where the truth is at this point". Rather than "I don't know WHAT the truth is", she is expressing the fact that she has a lot of conflicting information that is difficult to sift through, which is something that the audience is easily able to identify with.

Subjectivity - The extent to which we experience the inner thoughts and feelings of characters

Social actors -
 * David
 * Elaine
 * Howard

Communicativeness - Texts know more than they tell at any one moment


 * The film holds back information to keep the plot moving forward - the viewer discovers the story in a disjointed fashion. While the director obtained information from entire interviews at one time, the interviews have been chopped up in this film to keep important information until the end
 * Information that is withheld - Arnold's death, Harold's homosexuality, Jesse's imprisonment, and Elaine's new marriage.
 * The film attempts to structure itself chronologically around the way that the family discovered the story.
 * Parts that aren't chronological - Elaine says that Arnold went to therapy with her and confessed to molesting two boys. The audience is not told when this event took place, but it is suggested that it was prior to Arnold's arrest. This makes Elaine's ignorance to the problems seem suspect. Additionally, the scenes of analysis of Arnold and Elaine's marriage and the sexual issues between them falls outside of the general narrative.

Interactive Mode of Representation

Quotes are taken from Bill Nichols' "Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary" 1991


 * "To engage with individuals more directly while not reverting to classic exposition"
 * "The filmmaker also recounts past events by means of witness and experts, whom the viewer can see"
 * Very few enactments are used - the film is told through direct eye witness and genuine archive footage

Editing


 * A fragmented style
 * Juxtaposes "incongruous or contradictory statements about the same issue"
 * "Editing operates to maintain logical continuity between individual view points, usually without benefit of an over arching commentary"
 * "The mode introduces a sense of partialness, of situated presence and local knowledge that derives from the actual encounter of film maker and other"

Style of Interviews


 * "When interviews contribute to an expository mode of representation, they generally serve as evidence for the film maker's, or text's argument. When interviews contribute to an interactive mode of representation, they generally serve as evidence for an argument presented as the product of the interaction of film maker and subject"
 * This film does not state a specific point of view on the part of the director that he then attempts to back up with evidence. It instead forms a point of view through the process of investigation and interviews. The evidence is presented first, followed by the audience drawing a conclusion as opposed to a conclusion being presented first followed by the audience being convinced of it's validity.

Three styles of interviews used -
 * Masked interview - a little more focused than a conversation style interview; "the interviewer is off screen and the dialogue has an imperfect quality."
 * Pseudo monologue - film maker's presence is noticeably absent and "appears to deliver the thoughts, impressions, feelings and memories of the individual witness directly to the viewer"
 * Pseudo dialogue - "the interview format prohibits full reciprocity or equity between the participants. The interviewer's skill is often revealed by his or her ability to appear at the service of the interviewee whose speech he or she actually controls."