Divine Trash Reviews

What fetid pit of perversity spawned filmmaker John Waters? If you've ever wondered, this 1998 documentary was tailor-made for you. Back in 1972, fledgling filmmaker Steve Yeager pitched his Maryland public television bosses an idea for an anthology series about Baltimore-area artists. His first subject: 25-year-old underground filmmaker Waters, who was about to start shooting a little something called PINK FLAMINGOS. Without waiting for a go-ahead, Yeager began interviewing Waters, his cast and crew, following them as they filmed their saga of the "filthiest people in the world." The series never happened and Yeager's footage sat in his refrigerator for 25 years; it forms the core of this hugely entertaining look at Waters' origins and legacy. Yeager reinterviewed the director and tracked down dozens of his associates for new interviews; to a man and woman they're articulate, charming and forthcoming. Many of the stars of Waters' early films — including Pat Moran (now a respected casting agent), Mink Stole and Mary Vivian Pearce — are present and accounted for; the late Divine, Edith Massey and David Lochary appear in earlier interview footage. Also on board are Waters' parents and Divine's mother, the forward-thinking Episcopal priest who let Waters show Roman Candles (1966) in the church hall, Divine's makeup man and the artist who contributed such essential pieces of the Waters canon as the sex-maniac lobster of MULTIPLE MANIACS. Yes, it's heavy on the talking heads, but they're such an oddball collection of heads that it's no hardship to watch them. And with the exception of Mary Avara, former head of the Maryland Board of Censors (who looks like she's on the verge of a heart attack every time Waters' name is mentioned), not one has a bad thing to say about the prince of bad taste. Who'd have thought it?