John Waters has earned a variety of nicknames and monikers over the past five decades — the Prince of Puke, the Duke of Dirt, the Pope of Trash. He’s a radically subversive filmmaker, so it’s kind of ironic (and almost perversely disappointing, for him) to see Waters embraced by the heights of cinephilia in the mainstream, Turner Classic Movies and The Criterion Collection. The dangerous satirist is almost popular, and it’s kind of like watching Minor Threat play MOMA — it’s a bit incongruous.

Of course, he deserves the accolades, but it hasn’t gone to his head whatsoever. He’s still extremely generous with his time and more engaged with his fans than pretty much any director alive. In fact, when Exhumed Films and The Mahoning Drive-In decided to host a John Waters film festival, Waters himself was happy to team up and work with them, and is heading to Lehighton, Pennsylvania to attend and spend some time with the audience. As the synopsis for the event reads:

“For three days beginning September 29, The John Waters Filthy Film Festival will celebrate the subversive creations of the indelible Waters, the mastermind behind cult classics such as Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, and Hairspray. The drive-in festival will showcase six of his most outrageous and influential works — as well as a secret bonus feature curated by Waters himself — all shown on 35mm.” You can find showtimes and more information at The Mahoning Drive-In website.

Waters will grace the drive-in lot with his presence, providing live, on-site commentary and engaging in a sure-to-shock Q&A session each night. Ahead of the Filthy Festival (which includes costume contests, games, prizes, photo ops, and much more), Waters spoke with MovieWeb about his legacy and reframing the films that he’s presenting in the light of today’s harsher, anti-sex, anti-LGBTQ+ climate, and a wide variety of things in this conversation with the unsurprisingly hilarious and authentic icon.

Related: John Waters’ Filthy Film Festival Brings the Dirt to Drive-Ins

“It Makes Me Want to Puke”
New Line Cinema

MovieWeb: Congratulations about the film festival! It seems like you’re still as popular as ever, or even more so.

John Waters: You know, Pink Flamingos recently played on Turner Classic Movies. I thought, “Wow, how could that possibly, how could that be?” And in the description, it just said, “Fat woman lives in trailer.” It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever read about Pink Flamingos. “Well, that simplifies it,” I thought.

MW: That brings me to another question. With TCM airing your work, and it being in The Criterion Collection, it feels like the Pope of Trash has become accepted. What’s that like?

John Waters: It’s so respectable it makes me want to puke. But maybe this drive-in will bring me back some of my credentials. Because it sounds like a drive in I thought up in my mind, which sounds like the perfect destination lunatic drive-in for film perverts. […] I’d heard about it from other people that had been to it, and they hired me once to appear with Elizabeth Coffey in Philadelphia at one of their festivals when they were showing Pink Flamingos, so I had dealt with them before.

John Waters: But mostly I had heard about it from my friends that live in Pennsylvania, how great it was and how really in the middle of nowhere it is which I just love the whole idea of. It’s kind of like Two Thousand Maniacs when you drive to this town that nobody knows about, like you’re not in the real world, that’s what this is gonna be like, I think.

MW: Like a Burning Man for film.

John Waters: Well, Burning Man sounds like my idea of what horror would be. I would rather die than go to Burning Man. That would be like going to hell to me, would be going to Burning Man and listening to the Grateful Dead for the rest of my life. That would be hell, and taking ecstasy where you loved everybody? Oh God… I don’t think we’ll have too many cuddle piles at the drive-in.

Related: John Waters: Every Film He Directed, Ranked

The Filthy Filmography

MW: What was your involvement in choosing which films screen at the festival?

John Waters: Well I didn’t demand final say or anything, if I hated it I’m sure they would have said okay, you know. I’m much more of a negotiator. I mean, even with all the director contracts I had with the studios, I eventually got out the film I wanted after much negotiation, but that’s a skill you have to learn if you’re gonna be in Hollywood as a director.

MW: What do you think of the selection of films [Female Trouble, A Dirty Shame, Pecker, Pink Flamingos, Desperate Living, Hairspray]? How does it represent your career?

John Waters: I think it’s trying to show the different extremes of it, the highs and the lows, but the lows are the highs in my opinion […] I’m amazed all my films aren’t hits! I don’t get why Hairspray was a hit but A Dirty Shame wasn’t. I mean, people can argue that point with me, but to me, my films have all said the same thing.

They have the same message, which is to don’t judge other people unless you know the whole thing, and try to be more accepting and laugh at yourself first, and then you can laugh at the craziness of others, but you have to learn to laugh at yourself first.

John Waters: And that’s how I direct a movie. And hey, I didn’t know what I was doing when I started. You look at those movies, if you like them, you say that they were raw; if you don’t like them, you say we’re amateurs. But as Mink [Stole] said, ‘I don’t know how anybody could call us amateur when we had to do five pages of dialogue in one take and not forget one word, that’s not amateur to me.’

John Waters Brings the Sex Back to Movie Theaters
Fine Line Features

MW: I love what you said about the overarching message of your films, and I think that’s why this is a perfect time for a John Waters film festival and a celebration of the otherness and weirdness in all of us.

John Waters: Well, my whole audience is people that think of themselves as outsiders, but they don’t even get along with the other people in their minority. They can’t fit in with their own minority, that’s why they have a special sense of humor. Because what we all laugh about, is the rules […] Today, liberals — and I am certainly a bleeding heart liberal — have more rules than our parents!

John Waters: Look at Pink Flamingos. It’s more politically incorrect than it ever was, but I never get canceled. I think the reason is because I’m not mean-spirited. I make fun of things I love, and I direct a movie, I think, with love for the characters and with love to the audience. I think I have a smart audience a dress. They dress well — wait til you see some of the outfits at this drive-in. I promise you, people will have lots of good drive-in looks [with] easy access to sexual parts in case you want to have sex at the drive-in, which is definitely part of going to the drive-in! When I was young, people had sex in movie theaters; it was not that amazing. Today that is a rarity. I don’t think I’ve seen anybody having sex in a movie theater in years.

Well, you might this weekend. And even if you don’t, you’ll see some of the most entertaining and wild movies of the past five decades. The Mahoning Drive-In Theater is located at 635 Seneca Road, Lehighton PA. It’s a dirty shame if you don’t check it out.