Jonathan Caouette | |
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Born | Houston, Texas, U.S. |
Occupation(s) | Director, producer, film editor, writer |
Jonathan Caouette is an American film director, writer, editor and actor.
Caouette's mother was mentally ill and frequently institutionalized. He never knew his father, being raised between his mother, grandparents and foster homes. He was raised as a reformed Jew. [1] He attended Westbury High School in Houston, Texas from 1987 to 1990 where he was bullied regularly for his effeminacy. [2] [3] [1]
At the age of 12, Caouette accidentally smoked PCP, resulting in what a doctor later diagnosed as depersonalization disorder.
Caouette is the director and editor of Tarnation (2003), an autobiographical documentary [4] that premiered at the Sundance and Cannes film festivals in 2003, and the director of All Tomorrow's Parties about the cult music festival. Caouette has also directed the experimental short film All Flowers in Time and the feature documentary Walk Away Renee. The latter was produced by Agnes B and premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. In 2009, Caouette served as a creative advisor for director Matthew Mishory's film, Delphinium: A Childhood Portrait of Derek Jarman . [5]
He has described Tarnation as an attempt to give his disorder filmic form. [6] Of the film, he said:
It was a completely organic process based on these unusual, psychological experiences I've had in my adult life—these strange, trancelike experiences, similar to sensations I remember from childhood when I had a very high fever. Where I'm half asleep and half awake, just on the cusp of dreamland. And right as I'm about to conk out, this whole plethora of information comes from my own awareness and rushes into my mind's eye. It's like a story, or a poem, or a series of images...It only makes sense for a moment and then it dissipates. It's like this weird waking dream. I wanted to lucidly mimic that in the form of a film and transpose it cinematically. Soon after I met John [ Cameron Mitchell ] and I had auditioned for his film Shortbus . I had to break away from everything in New York to go rescue my mother in Texas where my grandfather was, one could say, inadvertently allowing her to overdose on lithium. I had to go out there to be their saving grace. After I nursed her to health. I brought her back to New York with me, documenting everything. When I came back, I met this guy who was an intern at the MIX Film Festival. I showed him about 45 minutes of the film I had been making, which had three working titles at the time. "Lucid," "The Day I Disappeared" and "Tarnation," and he said, "Whatever this is, you should finish it because there's a deadline for this film festival coming up in three weeks." So I took my vacation from Mikimotos, where I was working as a door-man, and I went on this crazy editing marathon and got the film in right in the nick of time. I got it into the hands of the then festival director, Stephen Winter, who is also really good friends with John Cameron Mitchell, and that's how everything exploded. [6]
Caouette had a major role in the 2006 film Fat Girls [7] and the film Portland, scheduled for pre-production in 2012. [8] He also appeared in Shortbus , directed by John Cameron Mitchell [9] and in the German documentary Wie ich lernte die Zahlen zu lieben/ How I Learned to Love the Numbers about OCD by Oliver Sechting & Max Taubert.
Caouette has a son, Josh, [10] who was featured in the 2008 documentary Bi the Way . Caouette is gay and lives with his husband David in New York City. [11]
Films directed by Caouette:
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, poet, gardener, and gay rights activist.
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Reginald Vermue is a Canadian indie rock singer from Guelph, Ontario. Born in Trenton, Ontario, he has recorded music under the stage names Gentleman Reg and Regina Gently. His musical style has been compared to Elliott Smith, Aimee Mann, The Smiths and Cat Power. He had a cameo role in the 2006 film Shortbus.
Tarnation is a 2003 American documentary film essay by Jonathan Caouette.
Jocelyn Rachel Samson, known professionally as JD Samson, is an American musician, producer, songwriter and DJ best known as a member of the bands Le Tigre and MEN.
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Delphinium: A Childhood Portrait of Derek Jarman is a 2009 short film based on the early years, work, and legacy of British artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman. The film was written and directed by Matthew Mishory and produced by Iconoclastic Features. It was executive produced by Andreas Andrea. Keith Collins, Jarman's surviving muse, participated in the making of the film. Jonathan Caouette served as a creative advisor. It is the first narrative work about the life of Derek Jarman.
Paul Dawson is an American actor. In the 2006 comedy-drama film Shortbus, written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell, he played the secretly suicidal former prostitute James.
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