Tarnation

At the age of 11, Caouette borrowed a video camera from a neighbour and 20 years later the shots he made at the time found their way into his gripping, multi-layered and occasionally shocking ego document Tarnation, a fascinating amalgamation of family snapshots, found footage, video diary, answering machines, interviews and pop songs. Caouette edited his film at home on Apple’s iMovie, for $ 218.18, but that can’t have included the costs of the beautiful soundtrack with plenty of Nick Drake. He showed a long version to Gus Van Sant and John Cameron Mitchell, who enthusiastically took on the job of executive producer. When he was little, Caouette’s mother underwent electro-shock therapy that probably broke something that didn’t need fixing. A year later, his father left them in the lurch. Caouette was brought up by his grandparents and managed to find his own niche in Texan subculture. He has the film material to prove it: a self-portrait at the age of 11 in drag, at the age of 13 in new wave gay clubs lip-syncing to Liquid Sky, a performance of Blue Velvet, the high-school musical. In the words of critic Jim Hoberman: ‘Adrift in a selectively arranged saga of breakdowns, foster homes, abuse, attempted suicide, and brain damage, the artist clutches his camera as though it were a life raft, and apparently he survives.’ (GT)