| Director | Jonathan Caouette |
|---|---|
| Genre | LGBT-related film, documentary film, teen film |
| Runtime | 88 min |
| Country | United States |
| Box office | $1.2 million |
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.
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 Davis, who despite personality quirks, provided a supportive family for him. The film explores Caouette's life as he negotiates his complicated relationship with his mother as her child, friend, and ultimately, parental figure while developing his creativity as an actor, writer and director. His empathy for his mother, and for the abuses women endure, is demonstrated in a scene early in the movie in which an approximately 11-year-old Caouette improvises a monologue as a woman in an abusive relationship.
Caouette came out as gay at a young age and moved to New York City at age 25, eventually finding a boyfriend named David Sanin Paz. They lived together in New York City for many years. As documented in the film, his mother has lived with them at times and they've formed an unusual family.