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Andrew Jarecki is best known these days as an award-winning Director/Filmmaker (Sundance) for his documentary of the Long Island family torn apart by allegations of sexual abuse. "Capturing the Friedmans" rose in the ranks this past Summer and definitely made a name for itself. Whether you love or hate this film is irrelevant. The significance being as Jarecki relays: the story needed to be told: most notably on a humane level; for in demonizing people and making monsters of this family, we negate our responsibility as humans...And quite possibly turn our backs on the truth in the process.

Jarecki began his investigation of the Friedmans quite innocently as a man putting together a short documentary on New York City Professional Children's Clowns. From there, he happened upon David Friedman a NYC-based professional clown he has used personally many times for his own parties. The original 20-minute Documentary on clowns is now complete as is the "Capturing the Friedmans" DVD which will be out January 27. The DVD includes an added 2 hours of footage.

Let's start at the Beginning.

In first interviewing David Friedman about his career as a Clown, Jarecki was drawn to meet David's family and more specifically his mother. David was very vocal in his contempt for his mother and this intrigued the filmmaker. When he finally made it out to the Long Island home of Elaine Friedman, he realized that there was a greater story to be told here-one that perhaps would emotionally resonate with viewers and one that involved a "perfect" family, well intact that had been completely destroyed by a single event-a tragic unraveling of sorts. As Jarecki notes, Elaine speaks of her family in the past tense-she is a very complicated character who communicates much even without uttering a word.

Were they guilty or innocent?

Blame is an interesting paradox. On the one hand, people flock to it in coming up with answers to problems and on the other hand it's completely irrelevant and futile most often in solving problems. If often exonerates responsibility, in a sense. If you leave the film with only the obvious question: Were they guilty or innocent, you are missing the crux. However, as Jarecki mentions, the Friedmans were indeed a family full of individual fighters-passionate and feisty on their own but utterly useless as a functioning entity. Even when a therapist was on board to make them see this and really to get them to focus on the allegations, they couldn't stop fighting/blaming long enough to productively work together to build a proper defense.

With regards to who is the real culprit in this, Jarecki and I discussed parental duties. As a parent himself, I asked Andrew, even if Arnold was himself guilty, didn't he have a duty as a parent to protect his son? He agreed, without a doubt, that Arnold could have been more proactive in his approach to protecting his son. "Arnold didn't want to be the heavy/the bad guy." At the same time, he felt incredibly guilty. Whether or not he was innocent of the sexual molestation charges, he was guilty of sending pornography over the mail and as the patriarch of the family, he had a duty to act responsibly.

The need for emotional breathers

Jarecki was once quoted as saying "if people don't have somebody to talk to after the film, then they get stuck and can't get to sleep or they have a fight with someone and don't know why." This asks a lot of its audience on an emotional level because a film like this leaves you with so many questions and reflections on your own life. I wondered how much of this was Jarecki's intent in making the film and how often he was revisited with the question: Is this any of my business? In response to this very question, Jarecki said he asked himself this question so much, his conscience finally made him take the trek up to Harvard to visit a Professor of Social Ethics to get his opinion on the film. The Professor urged Jarecki to trust himself and eased his concerns that he was somehow being inhumane, traumatizing the family, or possibly putting David's career in jeopardy.

As for emotional breathers, Jarecki said that in the film, the pauses were found in the footage he took of Great Neck: the clock winding, the train station. These images served to give the film and the audience the necessary pauses to go forward. I'm not so certain you do go forward however. I think perhaps like the clock, you just come full circle.

Jesse Friedman recently filed a 440 motion. Thoughts?

The 1000-page motion filed by Jesse Friedman basically outlines evidence that the Prosecution never revealed to the Defense at the time of the allegations. (Brady vs. Maryland) Legally they were bound to do so. In light of evidence that had been uncovered during the film's investigation of the case, Jesse Friedman is able to file the motion. After serving the full 13 years in jail, I had to know: Why bother now? Jarecki said that really it was a matter of clearing his name. It speaks to Jesse's strength and character that he would be willing to reopen the case again after all this time and given all the emotional repercussions involved.

Future world domination plans, films in the works????

Jarecki was co-founder of Moviefone.com and also co-wrote and performed the theme song for the WB hit show "Felicity." Any musical aspirations? He says he decided against scoring "Capturing the Friedmans," but has retained an interest in music. As for the future, he has a couple ideas on the table, but for now, he's just happy to have completed the feat of putting together a DVD for the film and is proud of the outcome.

I was just happy to have had the chance to do the interview and finally chat with him.

For more on the film, be sure to visit, visit www.capturingthefriedmans.com.