Jonathan Caouette
Encyclopedia
Jonathan Caouette is an American film director, writer, editor and actor. Caouette is the director and editor of Tarnation (2003), an autobiographical documentary, and director of All Tomorrow's Parties about a cult music festival
.
, directed by John Cameron Mitchell
.
from 1987 to 1990.
Caouette has a son, Josh, who featured in the 2008 documentary Bi the Way
. Caouette is gay
and lives with his partner in New York City.
At the age of 12, Caouette accidentally smoked angel dust
, resulting in a doctor later diagnosed as Depersonalization disorder
. The director has described his film "Tarnation" as an attempt to give his disorder filmic form. Of the film, he said:
All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival)
All Tomorrow's Parties is a music festival which takes place at Camber Sands holiday camp in East Sussex and Butlin's holiday camp in Minehead, Somerset, England....
.
Films
- Tarnation (2003)
- All Tomorrow's Parties (2009)
- All Flowers in TimeAll Flowers in TimeAll Flowers in Time is a 2010 short surrealist horror film directed by Jonathan Caouette. The plot centers on a television signal that possesses young children, making them believe they can transform into other people or monsters. The film stars Chloë Sevigny and has been screened at several film...
(short) (2010) - Walk Away ReneeWalk Away Renee"Walk Away Renée" is a song made popular by the band The Left Banke in 1966 , composed by the group's then 16-year-old keyboard player Michael Brown and Tony Sansone...
(2011)
Acting
Caouette played a major role in the 2006 film Fat Girls and the film Portland, scheduled for pre-production in 2012. He also appeared in ShortbusShortbus
Shortbus is a 2006 comedy-drama film written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell. The plot revolves around a sexually diverse ensemble of colorful characters trying desperately to connect in New York City. The characters converge in a weekly Brooklyn artistic/sexual salon loosely inspired by...
, directed by John Cameron Mitchell
John Cameron Mitchell
John Cameron Mitchell is an American writer, actor, and director. He is best known for his motion pictures Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shortbus and Rabbit Hole.- Early life:...
.
Personal life
Caouette attended Westbury High School in Houston, TexasTexas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
from 1987 to 1990.
Caouette has a son, Josh, who featured in the 2008 documentary Bi the Way
Bi the Way
Bi the Way is a 2008 documentary film about bisexuality in the United States. It had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas...
. Caouette is gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
and lives with his partner in New York City.
At the age of 12, Caouette accidentally smoked angel dust
Phencyclidine
Phencyclidine , commonly initialized as PCP and known colloquially as angel dust, is a recreational dissociative drug...
, resulting in a doctor later diagnosed as Depersonalization disorder
Depersonalization disorder
Depersonalization disorder is a dissociative disorder in which the sufferer is affected by persistent or recurrent feelings of depersonalization and/or derealization. Diagnostic criteria include persistent or recurrent experiences of feeling detached from one's mental processes or body...
. The director has described his film "Tarnation" as an attempt to give his disorder filmic form. 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."