Watch Tarnation (2004) Free Online

Release Date: 2004

Cast: Jonathan Caouette, Michael Cox

Categories: Movies, Lgbt, Documentary, Culture & Society, Experimental Film, Biography, Interpersonal Relationships, Avant-Garde, Indie

Tarnation is a 2003 documentary film by Jonathan Caouette. The film was created by Caouette from over 20 years of hundreds of hours of old Super 8 footage, VHS videotape, photographs, and answering machine messages to tell the story of his life and his relationship with his mentally ill mother Renee. It was initially made for a total budget of $218.32, using free iMovie software on a Mac. (As an early supporter, film critic Roger Ebert notes, $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... MORE

Tarnation is a 2003 documentary film by Jonathan Caouette. The film was created by Caouette from over 20 years of hundreds of hours of old Super 8 footage, VHS videotape, photographs, and answering machine messages to tell the story of his life and his relationship with his mentally ill mother Renee. It was initially made for a total budget of $218.32, using free iMovie software on a Mac. (As an early supporter, film critic Roger Ebert notes, $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 awards including Best Documentary from the National Society of Film Critics, the Independent Spirits, the Gotham Awards, and the LA and London International Film Festivals. 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 in her youth. She did not need this electroshock therapy, which resulted in lifelong insanity. 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 LESS