Houston Premiere: Walk Away Renée

Houston-born filmmaker Jonathan Caouette creates a touching take on the road trip movie in Walk Away Renée, the sequel to his lauded 2003 documentary Tarnation.

Jonathan’s mother, Renée LeBlanc, is a schizophrenic who must take her lithium to maintain balance in her mind. In the midst of their 1600-mile journey from Houston to New York City, her box of meds goes missing, and Jon must make the journey as he feels his mother slipping away.

They head north in their U-Haul truck, making stops to see street musicians in New Orleans and a carnival somewhere between Tennessee and Virginia, as the story of their history together unfolds, stream-of-consciousness fed by Jonathan’s lifetime of home videos. Caouette uses his camera like a loom, weaving together visual impressions, undulating musical cues, and his own family’s words to help us feel the love he has for them, through the trying times they’ve all experienced together.

The movie made me feel like I was looking at Polaroids in the old family album, sitting on the rough corduroy couch my parents had when I was a kid. That old thing was boxy and hard, the color of a ripened squash, and the material had a habit of giving me leg burns under my knees when I slid across it. I loved that couch.

Walk Away Renée will be premiering in Houston at the Museum of Fine Arts this Saturday, November 3rd, at 7PM. Jonathan will be present for a Q&A following the film. Preceding the movie will be a screening of Caouette’s short film All Flowers in Time.

Walk Away Renée is directed by Jonathan Caouette. 2011, 90 min, color, video. Courtesy of IFC Films.