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John Waters

In conversation with Kevin Berger

Tuesday, May 25, 2010  |  Herbst Theatre, 8pm

Filmmaker John Waters is perhaps best known for his campy 1988 film, Hairspray, which spawned a long-running Broadway musical and subsequent new film version starring John Travolta. But it is Waters' decades of off-beat, highly original independent films set in his hometown of Baltimore that have earned him cult status, beginning with his first short film, Hag in a Black Leather Jacket, to 1972's Pink Flamingos, and beyond. In his films, as well as through acting, writing and visual art, Waters explores the macabre, kitsch, hilarity, horror, exploitation and the joyfully trashy with an artist's eye. Waters casts many of his characters in recurring roles in his films, most famously Harris Glenn Milstead's over-the-top drag persona "Divine." The titles of John Waters movies are enough to feed the imagination: Eat Your Makeup, Mondo Trasho, Multiple Maniacs, and Serial Mom, to name but a few. He introduced the world to Ricki Lake in Hairspray, and cast Johnny Depp as the lead in Cry-Baby. Waters both writes and directs his movies. In an industry where complete creative control is the rare exception, he's managed to make films on his own terms for more than 30 years. His forthcoming book, Role Models, a memoir written through the lens of some of Waters favorite people and closest friends, both famous and obscure.

Journalist Kevin Berger was the executive editor and senior staff writer at San Francisco magazine for six years. Most recently he was the features editor at Salon. His articles have garnered many awards, and Berger's subjects include homelessness -- he spent nearly a year following a homeless man on San Francisco's streets -- and numerous music icons ranging from Mahler to Patti Smith.

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