''Tarnation'' is a 2003 American

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

Jonathan Caouette Jonathan Caouette is an American film director, writer, editor and actor. Early life and education Caouette's mother was mentally ill and frequently institutionalized. He never knew his father, being raised between his mother, grandparents an ...

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Summary

The film was created by Caouette from over 20 years of hundreds of hours of old

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footage,

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

videotape, photographs, and answering machine messages to tell the story of his life and his relationship with his

mentally ill A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...

mother Renee.

Synopsis

''Tarnation'' is an autobiographical documentary focusing on Caouette's early life and adulthood, as well as his mother, Renee LeBlanc, who was treated with

electroshock Electroshock may refer to: * ''Electroshock'' (album), a 2012 album by Kate Ryan * Electroshock (wrestler), ring name of Edgar Luna Pozos (born 1970), Mexican ''luchador'' * Electroshock therapy, the former name for electroconvulsive therapy * E ...

in her youth. With an absent father and a mother who struggled with mental illness, Caouette eventually settled in the Houston area with his grandparents, Adolph and Rosemary Davis, who despite personality quirks, provided a supportive family for him. The film explores Caouette's life as he negotiates his complicated relationship with his mother as her child, friend, and ultimately, parental figure while developing his creativity as an actor, writer and director. His empathy for his mother, and for the abuses women endure, is demonstrated in a scene early in the movie in which an approximately 11-year-old Caouette improvises a monologue as a woman in an abusive relationship. Caouette

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

as gay at a young age and moved to New York City at age 25, eventually finding a boyfriend named David Sanin Paz. They lived together in New York City for many years. As documented in the film, his mother has lived with them at times and they've formed an unusual family.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack uses songs by

Hex Hex usually refers to: * A curse or supposed real and potentially supernaturally realized malicious wish * Hexadecimal, a base-16 number system often used in computer nomenclature Hex, HEX, or The Hex may also refer to: Magic * Hex sign, a b ...

(

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and

Steve Kilbey Steven John Kilbey (born 13 September 1954) is an English born Australian singer-songwriter best known as the lead singer and bass guitarist for the rock band The Church. He is also a music producer, poet, and painter. As of 2020, Kilbey has r ...

Lisa Germano Lisa Ruth Germano (born June 27, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Indiana. Her album '' Geek the Girl'' (1994) was named one of the best albums of the 1990s by ''Spin'' magazine. She began her career as a viol ...

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Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actress, and philanthropist, known primarily as a country music, country musician. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton's debut album ...

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and many more. Orchestral cues for the film were composed by John Califra. Max Avery Lichtenstein wrote several original instrumental songs for the film, including the film's recurring theme "Tarnation". The film's trailer features orchestral music by John Califra, "Tarnation" by Max Avery Lichtenstein, and the song "Safe As Milk" by the band Hopewell. No soundtrack compilation album has been released, but a digital E.P. featuring selections of Max Avery Lichtenstein's original music for the film was released in 2005 by Tin Drum Recordings.

Production

Caouette was shaping his material when he sent in an audition tape for

John Cameron Mitchell John Cameron Mitchell (born April 21, 1963) is an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, singer, songwriter, producer and director. He is known as the writer, director and star of the 2001 film ''Hedwig and the Angry Inch (film), Hedwig and t ...

's ''

Shortbus ''Shortbus'' is a 2006 American erotic comedy-drama film written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell. The plot revolves around a sexually diverse ensemble of colorful characters trying desperately to connect in an early 2000s New York City. ...

''. The tape contained the footage of an 11-year-old Jonathan imitating a battered wife. Mitchell was impressed and encouraged him to continue working on the film. He alerted Stephen Winter, then the artistic director of MIX NYC, the New York Lesbian & Gay Experimental Film Festival. Stephen became the producer of ''Tarnation''. A tape found its way to Mitchell's friend,

Gus Van Sant Gus Green Van Sant Jr. (born July 24, 1952) is an American filmmaker, photographer, painter, and musician. He has earned acclaim as an independent film, independent auteur. His films typically deal with themes of marginalized subcultures. His ...

, who was also deeply moved by the film. Both he and Mitchell signed on as executive producers. Film critic

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, an early supporter, said $400,000 more was eventually spent by the distributor on sound, print, score and music/clip clearances to bring the film to theaters. The film went on to win the Best Documentary Award from the

National Society of Film Critics The National Society of Film Critics (NSFC) is an American film critic organization. The organization is known for its highbrow tastes, and its annual awards are one of the most prestigious film critics awards in the United States. In January 2024, ...

,Sean McConville and Anna Bryson also was nominated for the

Independent Spirit The Independent Spirit Awards, originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards, and later as the Film Independent Spirit Awards, are awards presented annually in Santa Monica, California, to independent filmmakers. Founded in ...

s, the

Gotham Awards The Gotham Awards () are American film awards, presented annually to the makers of independent films at a ceremony in New York City, the city first nicknamed "Gotham" by native son Washington Irving, in an issue of ''Salmagundi'', published on ...

, as well as the L.A. and

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International Film Festivals. The film was initially made for a total budget of $218.32, using free

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software on a

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Reception and legacy

The November 2003 world premiere of the movie at MIX was much more abstract in nature, running about two hours. With input from Mitchell, Winter, and co-editor Brian A. Kates, Caouette shot new footage and edited the film down to about 90 minutes for its screening at the 2004

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

in the Frontier Section. There it was invited to appear in the

2004 Cannes Film Festival The 57th Cannes Film Festival took place from 12 to 23 May 2004. American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino served as jury president for the main competition. While American filmmaker Michael Moore won the Palme d'Or for the documentary film '' Fahrenh ...

Directors' Fortnight The Directors' Fortnight (, formerly ) is an independent section held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the Cannes festival as a ...

. The filmmakers did not have the $30,000 to make a film print for the festival but at the last minute respected art house distributor Wellspring picked it up and brought it to Cannes where it garnered great critical acclaim and worldwide distribution. ''Walk Away Renee'', Jonathan's companion film to ''Tarnation'', examines a certain later period involving the filmmaker and his mother. It premiered at Cannes in 2011 and was released internationally in May 2012. In June 2020, it was announced that indie distributor

Hope Runs High Hope Runs High is an American film distribution company. They began preserving digitally and distributing out-of-print documentary films before expanding to narrative and first-run theatrical films. A unique element of their library is that much o ...

had picked up ''Tarnation'' and was giving the film its streaming premiere on the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of arthouse film distributo ...

's Criterion Channel.

References

External links

* * *
''Tarnation'' on MUBIBBC website article about the screening at the Cannes FestivalJonathan Caouette's Blog (about himself and Tarnation)
{{Navboxes , title = Awards for ''Tarnation'' , list1 = {{National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Non-Fiction Film {{Sutherland Trophy 2003 films 2003 documentary films American teen LGBTQ-related films American collage films Documentary films about mental disorders Autobiographical documentary films Films directed by Jonathan Caouette Films shot in Houston Films shot in New York City Films shot in Portland, Oregon 2003 directorial debut films 2003 independent films 2003 LGBTQ-related films Films about mother–son relationships 2000s English-language films 2000s American films American LGBTQ-related documentary films Essays about culture English-language documentary films English-language independent films