Native Houstonian Jonathan Caouette earned his indie cred at Cannes with his first film, “Tarnation,” a 2003 documentary cobbled from childhood photographs and Super 8 footage edited on his iMac. Now the actor/director is returning to his hometown to write his latest project, an “existential psychological thriller” that’s a departure from the personal exploration that won him fame.
A personal connection is, however, behind Caouette's choice of location, as he deliberately chose Houston, the place where his creative expression and forays into filmmaking began. “Being in Houston,” he reasoned, “might draw some aspects of being a kid and having unfettered creativity.”
“I was the kid who was transfixed by 16mm films in school, ” he recalled. “I was mesmerized by every aspect of it, the mechanism in front of the camera as well as performing.”
Caouette began shooting movies at age 11 on a Super 8 camera his grandfather bought him at a pawn shop. As a teen he sought outlets for “creative gay kids in dysfunctional families.” A favorite haunt was Visions on Fondren, a primarily gay New Wave club with a pansexual appeal, which drew “a bunch of misfits: punks, skaters and the friendly skinheads.”
He dabbled onstage (Country Playhouse, Main Street Theater) and pursued an acting career that led to touring company gigs and, ultimately, relocating to New York City. When his now-husband’s aunt gave the couple a computer, he digitized childhood movies and ephemera and manipulated them into “Tarnation,” which grappled with his mother’s schizophrenia, his fractured upbringing and his sexuality.
After continuing his mother’s story in the documentary “Walk Away Renee,” Caouette is now stepping away from documentaries. “I want to get my feet wet with the newfangled territory of making fictitious narratives.
“I’m writing the most scary story I’ve ever thought of,” says the filmmaker who began by filming staged bloody horror scenes in his Westbury family home. “It’s scary and infused with hope, a response to all the not-so-good news that's been coming down the ethers for the past two years.”
Coming to Houston to write, Caouette hopes to recreate the creative energy of his childhood, the time of life when he believes we are at our most creative. “There’s no self-editing,” he observed. “The physicality of being back there will reactivate aspects of that.” He’s specifically hoping to reconnect to his 11-year-old self, “when I was going into my back yard and making up dialogue for fantasy films I had in my head.”
This next script, as yet untitled, will be shot in various locations around the globe, including Houston. “In a perfect world," Caouette says, “it will be in my old neighborhood of Westbury.”