Director and crew capture still more of the Friedmans

“If you learn anything from the Friedmans, it’s to keep the cameras rolling, all the time,” said Andrew Jarecki, director of “Capturing the Friedmans.” That’s exactly what he did last May at the premiere of his documentary about the New Jersey family torn apart by child molestation charges brought against father Arnold and son Jesse.

“We got a phone call from the district attorney saying, ‘I’m coming to the screening,’ and it turns out he’s coming with the judge, the cops, the detective in charge of the case, the postal inspector who started it all,” Jarecki continued. “At the same time, the Friedmans were going to be there too, so we knew this was going to be an incredible moment in the life of the film.”

True to his credo, Jarecki let the cameras roll during the post-screening discussion, which turned ugly within minutes. “An Altercation at the New York Premiere” wound up as a bonus feature on the “Capturing the Friedmans” DVD, which came out Tuesday, the same day the film earned an Oscar nomination in the feature-length documentary category.

“Rather than me just doing a commentary about the police response, it’s so much more interesting to say, ‘Oh, I happen to have recorded their reaction moments after having seen the film,’ ” Jarecki said. “To me, that footage is tailor-made for somebody who wants to go a step deeper into the film.”

“Capturing the Friedmans” is just one DVD amid a recent wave of compelling documentaries that seek to extend reality-based story lines with post-release narrative. For the “Spellbound” DVD, director Jeffrey Blitz provided a “where are they now” update on the eight spelling bee contestants featured in the film. The “Bowling for Columbine” DVD includes Michael Moore’s commentary about his infamous Oscar acceptance speech along with a teachers guide to encourage ongoing discussion of the film’s violence-in-America issue. The “American Splendor” DVD, coming out Feb. 3, features footage of cartoonist Harvey Pekar as he travels the film festival circuit in support of the docu-fiction hybrid film about his life.

For Sony Pictures Classics Co-President Michael Barker, who oversaw the release of last year’s most popular documentary, “Winged Migration,” nonfiction features like his studio’s “The Fog of War” lend themselves to a more fluid notion of when, exactly, a story is considered “over.” “If these are evolving stories, then the continued interest in the film doesn’t stop,” said Barker, who screened Errol Morris’ documentary about former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara for politicians in Washington, D.C., a few weeks ago. “The story can continue, through the DVD, and not only that -- you could reinvent [the piece] every couple of years as it continues.”

The story certainly continues in the case of the Friedmans. During a visit to Los Angeles last week, Jarecki said he quickly realized that the heated discussions he hosted at post-screening Q&A; sessions could serve as an exceptionally direct way to learn what “Friedman” fans really wanted to know more about. All he had to do was listen.

“Somebody in the second row would say, ‘I have to know more about that mother. She reminds me of my mother who’s driven me crazy my entire life. What’s her story?’ Then somebody in the back row would ask a question about why the police were unable to secure any physical evidence in the case. I realized very quickly, there are people who are responsive to the family and others who responded to the legal issues. Everything we did for the DVD was informed by talking to the audiences.”

The so-called “Outside the Frame” bonus disc includes additional home movie footage culled from the 25 hours of fractious tape shot by oldest brother David Friedman; Jarecki’s unfinished documentary about New York City’s birthday clown subculture, which he dropped after sensing a far darker story in birthday entertainer David Friedman; and a DVD-ROM section with downloadable documents encompassing Arnold Friedman’s 20-page autobiography written in prison before he killed himself, blueprints of the crime scene drafted by Jesse Friedman and an inventory of items found by police during a search of the Friedman house.

“That second disc really works on two levels,” Jarecki explained. “Viewers who were into the film as a page turner about a crime are going to click on the police folders. Each one of those files in the section about the case adds a new hidden chapter to the saga. Or else you’ve got people who say, ‘Yeah the case is interesting, but what I really want to know about is: What was it like for Jesse when he got out of jail, or what’s David’s clown career like, or what kind of childhood did Arnold Friedman have?’ And they will be immediately drawn to that family album.”

Lending the DVD a sense of aesthetic continuity, Jarecki’s cinematographer, editor, producer and composer on “Capturing the Friedmans” all stuck around to create the 32 short films making up the bonus package. “Our attitude was: Here’s the next chapter of the film,” Jarecki said. “Everyone who worked on the movie had so many lingering feelings about material that we still wanted to share with people who had remained interested in the story after having seen the film.”

Material from the DVD has been submitted as part of an appeal filed last month by Jesse Friedman, who spent 13 years in prison and is now seeking to overturn his 1988 child molestation conviction. At Friedman’s request, Jarecki contributed footage from his archives to serve as evidence in the 1,000-page appeals brief.

Said Jarecki, “When Jesse asked us if we’d give him the right to use transcripts and footage of material [from the DVD] that was not in the film, I felt I had a moral obligation to do so. There’s a lot about police interviewing techniques and other things that piled up in the making of the film that would have been gratuitous to include in the movie, because it seems to me the point was made in the film that this investigation was deeply flawed. I’ll be fascinated to learn if the judge watches it.”