Tarnation
United States
2003
88 Min
Color
1.37:1
English
Synopsis
Tarnation is an euphemism for damnation. “What in tarnation?” indicates disbelief. This is how Jonathan Caouette builds his part documentary, part narrative fiction out of hundreds of hours of old Super 8 footage, VHS videotape, photographs, and answering machine messages accumulated over 20 years, mixed with early short films, snippets of ’80s pop culture, and dramatic reenactments. It all begins in 2003 when Caouette learns that his schizophrenic mother Renee has overdosed on her lithium medication. Caouette is brutally sent back to his horrifying family history. Growing up, Caouette reconnects to life through a queer chosen family and eventually faces the terrible love he shares with his mother.
Director
Jonathan Caouette
Jonathan Caouette is the director of the highly praised film Tarnation (2004), produced by Gus Van Sant and John Cameron Mitchell. Tarnation screened at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, the Cannes International Film Festival, and a number of other prestigious film festivals and won several awards, including the best documentary award at the Los Angeles IFP/West Film Festival, the Sutherland Trophy from the British Film Institute, and an award from the National Society of Film Critics. It was also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. Caouette is also an actor who has appeared in films and on the stage. –Sundance
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Colton Bose
15May12
I don't know what I could possibly say about this film. No words would do it justice. All I know is that it is the most powerful, most honest documentary I have ever seen.
Matt Turner
12Mar12
Starts off seeming a bit egocentric and forced, but that feeling wavers as Caouette's unusual and disturbing montages draw you in, as does the undeniable emotional transparency on display. Really touching and upsetting, and commendably different, if sometimes a bit overly affected. How to do work with two hundred dollars, a troubled nuclear family, a super 8 camera and a friendship with John Cameron Mitchell.
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Lists and Awards, Part the Fourth
By David Hudson on December 7, 2009
"You'd expect that when a decade essentially begins (towers fall) and ends (bubbles burst) with rude awakenings, with sudden bombardments
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ephemeral patterns in the grass
By Blasphemer on April 28, 2010
A story of one man, one life, one unique snowflake among all the other snowflakes. Jonathan Caouette’s story, gorgeously told here in Tarnation, evokes a startling sense of empathy, and if you have… read review
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