Tarnation
There is no film like Tarnation and never will be. It’s not about the genre, there are plenty of documentaries spliced of old home movies, showing the truth about a family. Caouette’s film is of that category, but the footage at his disposal, his persona, and individual approach to his autobiography stands apart from other filmmakers.
Caouette is an artist and it seems has been since early boyhood. The film includes powerful scenes showing him in his teens, attempting to turn trauma into art through his improvisations of fictitious characters. Caouette’s modus operandi is ‘art saves from the abyss.’
The cinematic language he uses is a band apart, one that ostentatiously disdains sentimentalism while presenting the traumatic trials of his family. Laconic subtitle commentary supplants narration for a wonderful effect even if forced by financial constraints. It takes nothing from the film’s emotional charge, with some sentences cutting like a knife.
Tarnation is devastating, terrifying, but also hopeful as testimonial to trauma and its exorcism. As Caouette transcends from character to director, he is saved.
Michał Chaciński
awards
British Film Institute Awards 2004 – the most original and imaginative film of the year, Boston Society of Film Critics Awards 2004 – best new filmmaker, San Diego Film Critics Society Awards 2004 – best documentary, Los Angeles IFP/West FF 2004 – best documentary, National Society of Film Critics Awards 2005 – best non-fiction film, Milan Lesbian and Gay IFF 2005 – best film
Jonathan Caouette
Born in 1973 in Houston, Texas, Caouette has starred in his own films since he was eight years old. Tarnation is his feature-length directorial debut. He edited the first cut using free software, and commented that the budget was a bit over $200 (in fact, the sound mix of the commercial version cost several hundred thousand dollars). Gus Van Sant and John Cameron Mitchell, whom Caouette contacted while making the film, joined as producers. After the world success of Tarnation, Caouette began working on a documentary on the All Tomorrow’s Parties underground festival, which premiered in 2009. In the meantime, Caouette has worked as a theater actor, sporadically appearing in films.
Selected filmography
2003 Tarnation (dok. / doc.)
2009 All Tomorrow’s Parties (dok. / doc.)