Twenty-four hour person

Back in 2004, Hot Press came over all aquiver for Jonathan Caouette’s Tarnation, a coruscating debut ‘auto fiction’ doc cobbled together from old home movies, recordings and pictures and edited with the free software that comes with a MacBook. Well, as usual, we know how to pick ’em. All Tomorrow’s Parties is a gorgeous, similarly exuberant bricolage of digital and mobile phone images taken from the English music extravaganza. The film, which will screen as part of the fantastic music strand at this year’s Stranger Than Fiction Documentary Film Festival, is the work of some 200 filmmakers and one Jonathan Caouette, who once again proves that he’s the most exciting thing to happen to underground cinema since The Battle Of Algiers.

Readers who turned out for the Irish premiere of Tarnation all those years ago will be pleased to note that the hotshot director still keeps a brochure from Belfast’s Europa Hotel to remind himself how cool this particular nation is. Right back at you, man.
First big obvious question – how does a New York scene wunderkind and Texan export get involved with a music festival set in an out of season English holiday camp?
“If memory serves me right, I got a Gmail from Warp Films way back when. I think it was 2005?? 2004? I’m now 36. And already time is melding together like a caddywampus Frank Zappa song playing on a scratchy 45 nested in the mind of a protagonist of a Turkish 70’s film based on Slaughterhouse Five screening in a theatre that seats about 10. I am clearly unstuck in time. Actually specifically the gmail was from Luke Morris from Warp, who asked me if I might be into making a film about the ATP festival. It really didn’t take much to twist my arm about the idea of making a film on ATP. I was sold almost immediately. I had heard about ATP for years, since 2002. I knew it was this quirky cool little festival in England held in these camps.”
There is obviously some common ground, formally speaking, between All Tomorrow’s Parties and Tarnation. But Tarnation is contained and intensely personal. Here you’re dealing with far more authors, far more cooks who might spoil the broth. Was that a big adjustment?
“I suppose the biggest adjustment was simply allowing what was to happen just happen really. At some point early on, I realised that once I embarked on this, I had to literally “let go” and just know that somehow some way everything was going to fall into place in terms of all the people that participated, from the punters and bands – and the footage that they contributed – to people in general just allowing us and trusting us enough to stick little cameras in their faces. There is so much footage that a ‘People of ATP only’ film could be made without any music and it would probably be this really cool self contained little film in itself. It was a great little ride and wonderful experience about working in a full on collaboration. It was such a punk way of making a film. I know that that word “punk” this day and age has a kind of homogeneous disposability to it, but really every aspect of working on this film was unpredictable in all the best ways that making films should be. The atmosphere of ATP is so wonderfully insane. You never knew what was going to happen from one moment to the next.
Tell me about the bands. Tell me about working with the ‘talent’.
“Oh gosh, what can I say. From Belle and Sebastian to Patti Smith to Iggy Pop to Grinderman to Les Savy Fav to, well, God there are too many amazing bands to mention. I love the arena of the bands that we selected for the film. Looking back at my own inner “battle of the bands for the film” I have to say that the selection for this film is pretty cool. I think our selection of bands for the film somewhat exemplifies the rich diversity of an ATP festival. Because it’s tough to completely encapsulate the experience of being at an ATP on film. There is so much that goes on during one. I truly recommend attending one if you’re lucky enough to book it. In a perfect world it would have been All Tomorrow's Parties the mini-series, a 20-hour version of the film. But alas!”
Autofiction! Discuss.
“Someone coined that phrase in regards to my work, but I don’t really fully understand what it means myself. It sounds very French to me. I actually think it was French Journalist who said that but I cannot remember who it was for the life of me. I can only assume that it means that one will go to any extent to tell his or her story even if it means creating devises that are Fictionish to still convey the Truth. But then again what the hell is truth anyway? My truth is different than other people’s truth. That term was used obviously in regards to my first film, Tarnation. I think it was said because the film was pigeon-holed as a documentary even though it really was more of an experimental film and because there were a few renactments to convey real events. But I do like the sound of Autofiction. It sounds like some new sub-genre that only a handful of people would know about. It makes me feel cool to know that that phrase is associated with me even though I am somewhat dumbfounded about it all.”
Jonathan Caouette fans have been very patient this past couple of years. What has their hero been up to?
“As foreboding as this sounds, honestly, I had been a caretaker of both of my family members who you know from Tarnation, this being both my Mom and my grandfather who recently passed. That inevitably segued into a hiatus from making films, but I quickly snapped back into creating some new work and planting seeds for some future films. I just recently completed a small film, starring one of my favourite actresses ever, Chloe Sevigny, called Rotarorae. The film was a 42-second film that is going to be part of a series of 42 42 second films by other filmmakers as part of a kind installation piece. It premiered in Beijing recently as part of the ONEDREAMRUSH festival. It was produced by my friends Asia Argento and her husband Michele Civetta. It’s so funny because the credit sequence for the film is longer than the film itself. I have also completed one screenplay that I am planning on shooting called ‘Back Home’. It’s a short that is going to be juxtaposed with three other shorts to make up the running time of a feature film. The premise of project as a whole is for four American filmmakers to re-imagine their favourite foreign films from way back when and rethink them towards the American culture today. I am going to do a “redux” of one of my favourite films, Persona by the great Ingmar Bergman. A dear friend of mine, Xan Cassavettes is spearheading the project as producer.”
I know that you were shooting a documentary on kids from broken homes...
“Yes. I am working on a film, yet untitled, about children, mostly adopted children, who have been so traumatised that they no longer have any ability to connect or bond with other people or show love or affection to anyone. They have built up such extreme disassociative defence mechanisms within themselves that they begin to go through life very different than most average people. They have very complex interpersonal relationships with other people from very early on. In fact, some of them have even attempted to murder their own family members. The film is about the desperate parents of these kids who have created their own makeshift universe and community to try and save these kids. The parents have created an annual camp environment to denote a kind of postmodern tough love atmosphere for these kids. It will be the second instalment of my “camp series” – people in “camp” atmospheres doing unconventional things – after All Tomorrow's Parties is the first one. I don’t want to say too much about it, but I can tell you that I would like to think that the film is going to be pretty compelling subject matter. It’s going make Tarnation look like Bedknobs And Broomsticks.”
Speaking of Tarnation, were you surprised just what a huge cultural impact it seemed to make?
“YES! Tarnation amazes me. I still can’t believe that people are still talking to me about how the film has inspired them either from a personal standpoint or a technical aspect. It seems to have gained a nice little cult following. I love that! The entire experience of making that film was completely unexpected. Such an amazing journey. Not sure if an experience like that will ever happen again.”

All Tomorrow’s Parties will screen at the IFI Stranger Than Fiction Documentary Film Festival, June 18-21.