Filmmaker - Tarnation
posted by Jonathan Caouette at 10:10 AM
Jonathan Caouette // Director, Writer, Editor & Actor - The intention of this blog is to collect and link information about Jonathan and Tarnation in 1 central place. // Please feel free to add information you've come across that isn't found here or post comments. // Jonathan presently lives in New York with his partner David Sanin Paz. He's currently on a worldwide tour promoting Tarnation and we'll keep you up to date here. His mother Renee LeBlanc is living in Texas again, and is doing fine.
3 Comments:
I saw "Tarnation" tonight. It was such a different movie experience, even from any of the standard "independent" fare. I haven't cried so hard in a long time.
As the gay son of one the founders of the Christian Coalition, Pat Robertson's right hand man (and a minister), and a struggling rock musician just barely younger than Jonathan, I so identified with so much of this movie.
This was the first movie in a long, long time that genuinely felt like "art" to me, in the best way. Not in the pretentious way- - it was incredibly accessible, but in the way that it was so beautiful and difficult and had such a unique voice.
Beyond my self-appointed film critic's voice though, this movie just nailed me. There was so much for me to identify with onscreen, generally as a human being, and personally as a gay person and an artist and a person with a difficult history that included abuse and damage inherited from generations prior.
And I just LOVED looking at this movie. And feeling this movie.
I haven't responded to a film, or visual art or even music on such an overhelmingly pervasive level in a long time- - if ever. I'm not the crazy groupie type. Living in lala land and having most of my day jobs and many of my friends in the "industry," famous and otherwise "connected," that stuff doesn't impress me.
But I'm so ready to be Jonathan's groupie. It seems like he and David have that covered which was such a beautiful part of the movie. But if something doesn't pan out... :)
Thanks for making such an incredible, honest, visceral, genre-shattering, hearbreaking and lifint- - and just plain fucking cool movie.
Big love
David in L.A.
David@citizenparanoid.com
I'm the guy who just posted and just wanted to clarify the 2nd paragraph. My FATHER is the Pat Robertson lacky, not me. I'm the struggling rock musician.
Cheers
David
I saw Tarnation tonight. Twice. I finished it, watched every bit of the credits, pondered for an hour, and then watched it again.
Never done that before.
You are an extraordinary storyteller, Mr. Caouette (May I call you Jonathan? After the intimacy of your film, I feel I might...after the bravery of your film, I would be honored, and after the vulnerability of your film, I can't call you anything without tenderness).
What I loved (besides the story, the characters, the music, the visuals, the homegrown quality, the angels, and yours and David's gorgeous faces) was that you said so eloquently: Look. This is my life, and there's beauty here to be considered. Under the chaos, next to the pain, through the mental illness, beyond the mundane. Look.
I am a songwriter. I know that you will influence my work. And I'm a daughter, a survivor, a struggler, a lover, and a celebrator. Thank you for letting me know that I'm not alone in all of this.
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