10 Film Documentaries That Accidentally Uncovered Major Scoops

2. Capturing The Friedmans - Clown Show Becomes Horror Show

Gimme Shelter 1970 documentary
HBO

Capturing The Friedmans is a film that director Andrew Jarecki never intended to make. In the early 2000s, his focus was on a short film titled Just A Clown, which was planned as a "day in the life" of New York-based children's party entertainers.

However, while making this short (which he did eventually finish), Jarecki's research led him to discover a shocking truth - namely, the dark story behind one of his subjects, David Friedman, whose family has a deeply disturbing history.

During the production process, Jarecki learned that David's brother (Jesse) and father (Arnold) had previously pleaded guilty to child sex abuse, which drove the filmmaker to uncover as much about the story as he could. His pursuit of the truth then evolved into the feature-length documentary Capturing The Friedmans, which tracks the Friedman case from beginning to end - from court cases, to prison, to Arnold's death in 1995, and Jesse's release six years later.

Needless to say, it's a million miles away from that initial, much breezier documentary about birthday party clowns.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.