‘Tarnation’

Pieced together from home movies and answering-machine tape, with a budget totaling $200, this documentary has gone on to major film festivals and awards.

By: Jim Boyle

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Filmmaker Jonathan Caouette returned to his Texas home to care for his mother, who was recovering from a lithium overdose.


   Life isn’t always about happy endings, but if anybody deserves one, it’s Jonathan Caouette. The window he opens for audiences with his debut documentary, Tarnation, reveals a troubled and confused life buoyed by a son’s ultimate love for his mother.
   The New Jersey Film Festival will screen the award-winning film Feb. 10-13, with an appearance by the director tentatively scheduled. Tarnation is a tough movie to watch, with raw and sometimes disturbing images cutting right to the core. But resist the urge to turn away, because you will miss a visual masterpiece.
   Despite the unsettling subject matter of mental illness, Tarnation comes off optimistic. Mr. Caouette and his mother have been through hell together, and have a strong relationship because of it. This isn’t the Hollywood-ized version of personality disorders — it’s the real thing, and much scarier.

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Jonathan Caouette uses old photographs, audio recordings and home movies to illustrate his tense but compassionate relationship with is troubled mother in Tarnation.


   Renee LeBlanc, the filmmaker’s mother, started her life as normal as anyone else’s in a Texas suburb. Her parents, Adolph and Rosemary, led a typicalmiddle-class life, and their daughter was a young beauty queen, appearing in commercials and print ads around the state. As a teenager, however, she was diagnosed with a mental disorder and sent for shock treatment therapy for two years, altering her life forever.
   Between numerous hospitalizations, she gave birth to Mr. Caouette in 1972, and with his father running off, tried raising him on her own. During one psychotic episode, she took him to Chicago with no money or prospects. After a horrific run-in with a stranger, she returned home and was again hospitalized, with Jonathan left in foster care, where he was abused for two years before his grandparents adopted him.
   A lot of the footage from Tarnation comes from home movies Mr. Caouette began shooting at age 11. He walked around with a camera, talking to his grandmother or recording testimonials as made-up characters. He has been diagnosed with depersonalization disorder, which means he has a feeling of disconnection from his body and a constant sense of unreality, like he is living in a dream. The flashing of images attacks the viewer’s subconscious like a dream, sometimes too fast to be discernible, but enough to evoke a distraught feeling in the gut.
   After this history is laid out, we switch to Mr. Caouette as an adult, a struggling actor living with his boyfriend in New York. He’s living as normal a life as possible when he receives the news that his mother overdosed on lithium. He rushes back to Texas to take care of her and reconnects with her. It’s a long and emotionally challenging recovery, but Mr. Caouette sticks by Ms. LeBlanc, strengthening his love for her. He never blames her or society for his lot in life, and the film never delves into self-pity. It’s a brutally honest confessional that becomes cathartic not only for him, but the audience as well.
   It was on his boyfriend’s computer that Mr. Caouette edited his old home movies and the new material, also mixing in photographs and audio recordings from answering machines, as well as scenes from Hollywood movies, such as Rosemary’s Baby and a pop-music soundtrack.
   The final budget was tallied at about $200, but the film rode a wave of buzz into the Sundance Film Festival, catching the eye of John Cameron Mitchell and Gus Van Sant. After signing on as executive producers, they helped carry Tarnation to the Cannes, Los Angeles (where it won best documentary), Toronto and New York film festivals.
Tarnation screens at the New Jersey Film Festival, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, Loree Hall Room 24, Feb. 10, 7 p.m., and Scott Hall Room 123, Feb. 11-13, 7 p.m. Tickets cost $6, $5 seniors/students. For information, call (732) 932-8482. On the Web: www.njfilmfest.com. Tarnation on the Web: www.wellspring.com