Tarnation

Fact was always going to be stranger than fiction for Jonathan Caouette, as Tarnation, his autobiographical documentary, shows. From the age of 11, Caouette filmed himself and his family to the point where they were so used to it that almost everything went on in front of the camera. In most home movies there comes a time where it is appropriate to stop filming. But Caouette kept on rolling. Tarnation is 19 years of footage of his life condensed into 88 minutes.

Caouette's mother, Renee LeBlanc, was a successful child model until she fell off the roof of her house when she was 12. LeBlanc's legs were paralysed for six months before her parents decided that the problem was in her mind and agreed to electroconvulsive therapy. She had two shock treatments a week for two years. Caouette believes these treatments destroyed his mother's personality.

LeBlanc's brief marriage to Steve Caouette produced Jonathan. On a trip to Chicago with her son, Renee was raped in front of her son. She broke down on the bus ride back home, was thrown off the bus for “disturbing” the …