Jonathan Caouette's autobiographical documentary about his early life and his mentally ill mother. Much of it was a nightmare. He was horribly abused in foster care. His mother's personality was destroyed by shock treatments in the Texas State Hospital.
As a thirteen-year-old, he would go to an 18-and-over club in drag. He got in by impersonating a young woman. He made friends who introduced him to punk rock and underground film.
A terrible sad story, but he didn't seem to be impoverished. His family had a camcorder which cost a fortune back then and he was shooting Super 8 film which cost ten bucks a roll ($20 in today's money) for three minutes and twenty seconds of footage.
He eventually fled Texas for New York City where he worked as an actor and where he made this movie for $218 on a Mac using free software. The distributor reportedly put in another $400 thousand to prepare the movie for release.
Available on the Criterion Channel.
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