John Waters
☼ Born on 22 December 1946, in Baltimore, Maryland, USA
BiographyGrowing up in Baltimore in the 1950s, John Waters was not like other children; he was obsessed by violence and gore, both real and on the screen. With his weird counter-culture friends as his cast, he began making silent 8mm and 16mm films in the mid-'60s; he screened these in rented Baltimore church halls to underground audiences drawn by word of mouth and street leafleting campaigns. As his filmmaking grew more polished and his subject matter more shocking, his audiences grew bigger, and his write-ups in the Baltimore papers more outraged. By the early 1970s he was making features, which he managed to get shown in midnight screenings in art cinemas by sheer perseverance. Success came when Pink Flamingos (1972) - a deliberate exercise in ultra-bad taste - took off in 1973, helped no doubt by lead actor Divine's infamous dog-crap eating scene.
Waters continued to make low-budget shocking movies with his Dreamland repertory company until Hollywood crossover success came with Hairspray (1988), and although his movies nowadays might now appear cleaned up and professional, they retain Waters' playfulness, and reflect his lifelong obsessions.
In the role of actor
Lynch/Oz – Fantasia 2022 (27/07/2022)
The connection between the films of David Lynch and his obsession with The Wizard of Oz is explored in Lynch/Oz. The Wizard of Oz is considered the quintessential American fairytale and has been an obsession of David Lynch throughout his career. From direct homages, such as the appearance of Glynda in 1990’s Wild at Heart, […]
Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution (24/04/2018)
The story of the movement that combined the punk and queer subcultures is told in Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution. Rejected by both the local punk and queer scenes, Toronto-based experimental filmmakers Bruce LaBruce and G.B. Jones invented a hybrid that they promoted through their zine “J.D.s.” The movement soon spread to other areas of […]