About

Screens with A Place Called Lovely 1991.

Assembled using Apple's free iMovie editing software,Tarnation is a portrait of an American family pieced together from photographs, Super-8 films, answering machine messages, pop culture references and dramatic re-enactments. After discovering that his schizophrenic mother has overdosed on her lithium medication, director Jonathan Caouette is forced to confront his family history that is marked by horrifying episodes of rape, abandonment, drug addiction, abuse and psychosis. During his childhood Caouette would immerse himself in musical theatre and B-movie horror narratives as a means of escape; 11-year-old Caouette's onscreen performance as a pregnant and abused junkie is a disturbing and poignant reflection of his damaged life.