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Easily the most talked about gay films of the year, Honathan Caouette’s spellbinding debut Tarnation reimagines the idea of what a documentary can be.

Caouette has been documenting his life since he was eleven years old. In Tarnation, he weaves a psychedelic whirlwind of snapshots, Super-8 home movies, answering machine messages, video diaries, snippets of 80’s pop culture, and dramatic reenactments to create an epic portrait of an American family torn apart by dysfunction and reunited through the power of love.

Tarnation begins in 2003 as Caouette learns of his mother’s lithium overdose in his native Texas. Faced with the haunting remnants of his past, including a family legacy of mental illness, abuse, and neglect, Caouette returns home. Slipping back into the archives of his youth, we watch Caouette grow up on camera, seeking escape from family trauma through musical theater, grade-B horror flicks and the forging of his identity through
popular culture.

Having relocated to New York in his twenties and subsequently attaining peace in the form of a supportive boyfriend, Caouette discovers that family ties are never truly unbound. Tarnation is a raw and sensual display of self-destruction and rebirth that announces the arrival of an exceptional new
cinematic visionary.