Divine Trash

The documentary covers John Waters's beginnings in Baltimore and the making of Pink Flamingos. Footage from the shoot, interviews from the period and new conversations with the people around him are brought together: his parents, his brother, Divine's mother, the actors and the crew. Its most memorable guest is Mary Avara, who headed the Maryland Censor Board and tells the camera exactly how disgusted his films made her. Rather than raising Waters up as a cult figure, Steve Yeager shows the everyday conditions of making independent films in those years: no money, no permits, a crew made of friends. The censorship argument sits at the centre and both sides get to talk. The film won the Filmmakers Trophy for documentary at Sundance in 1998 and was also nominated for the grand jury prize. Steve Buscemi and Herschell Gordon Lewis are among those interviewed.