On March 17, John Waters, screenwriter, director and proclaimed \u201cPope of Trash\u201d became the 35th honoree of the Frameline Award in recognition of his contributions to queer cinema history. The reception was held at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco \u2014 marking the theatre\u2019s official reopening after its restoration \u2014 and was followed by a screening of Waters\u2019 film \u201cSerial Mom\u201d with live commentary from the director himself.<\/p>\n
Balmy winds blew over the crowd waiting outside of the theatre. A flamboyant group of fans lined up down Castro Street and around the corner, many of whom were adorned in homemade costume renditions of various characters from Waters\u2019 iconic catalogue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hot,\u201d Waters said in conversation with The Daily Californian. \u201cI packed for San Francisco weather.\u201d Waters discussed the upcoming restorations of his films \u201cDesperate Living\u201d and \u201cHairspray\u201d with the Criterion Collection before the event began, saying \u201c(Criterion does) such a great job. I\u2019ve worked with the same people on all of my films. You\u2019re going to see detail on \u2018Desperate Living\u2019 you\u2019ve never seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked if he would do any special features for the films\u2019 restorative releases, Waters said with a smile, \u201cOh, yes. But I can\u2019t tell you.\u201d Moments later, he was whisked into the theater, loud cheers of his fans trailing behind him.<\/p>\n
Known for films such as \u201cPink Flamingos,\u201d \u201cPolyester\u201d and \u201cHairspray,\u201d Waters earned recognition for his boundary-pushing raunchy material and unashamed presentation of homosexual subjects. A gay man himself, Waters paved the way for queer media\u2019s popularity and palatability over a career that has spanned more than 40 years.<\/p>\n
Long gone are the days of screening his films in church basements in Massachusetts and distributing them in the adult movie sections of video rental stores; the Castro Theatre, one of the most storied institutions in San Francisco history, aptly fit the hundreds of fans anticipating Waters\u2019 on-stage arrival. The theater is, as Waters puts it, \u201cthe Radio City Music Hall of hallow homosexuals.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a profound honor to stand here tonight, back on stage at our beloved Castro Theatre, to present the Frameline Award to someone who didn\u2019t just change cinema, he changed lives,\u201d said drag queen Peaches Christ, opening the ceremony. \u201cI grew up in Maryland. When you grow up queer in suburban Maryland in the 1980s, Hollywood feels about a million miles away. … One day, the local news started covering a film being made just up the road for me in Baltimore. \u2018Hairspray\u2019 was being filmed in the summer of 1987, and they were interviewing this strange, brilliant man with a pencil mustache and a familiar accent, standing next to a larger-than-life drag queen named Divine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christ, in makeup resembling Divine\u2019s illustrious look from \u201cPink Flamingos,\u201d regaled the audience with a story about her immediate fascination with Waters and his work. \u201cAt 13 years old, I went to a mom-and-pop video store called Mom\u2019s Video. This place had absolutely no concept of age-appropriate rentals,\u201d Christ said. \u201cI asked the woman behind the counter if they had any John Waters movies and (she) sent me home with two VHS tapes. And I\u2019m telling you right now, that weekend changed my life forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her speech continued with sentiments about Waters\u2019 impact, saying \u201cDivine and John together created some of the most radical, queer cinema the world has ever seen. Work that was fearless, outrageous, deeply funny, and completely uninterested in asking permission from anyone.\u201d Shortly thereafter, Waters entered the stage to an eruption of applause. The entire theater rose to its feet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you, thank you, thank you,\u201d Waters said, opening his recipient speech. \u201cI feel so respectable I could puke.\u201d The audience sat down as he continued. \u201cMy God, look around you. Usually, I\u2019m getting an award in a simpler situation. I\u2019m gay for pay.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waters is a long-time partial resident of San Francisco, where he met drag queen and frequent collaborator Divine. \u201cI lived right here in (the Castro), which was then known as the Swish Alps,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when I first arrived in San Francisco, I lived in my car a block away from the Nob Hill (Theatre). And now, full circle, I live not that far away from that parking space in this great city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before \u201cSerial Moms\u201d began, Waters shared an anecdote. \u201cThis is my best movie. It\u2019s the only movie we had enough to make,\u201d he stipulated. \u201cIt was a failure when it came out, too.\u201d The film commenced alongside his commentary. He laughed at many of his own jokes, pointed out outfits he described as \u201chideous\u201d and pointed out locations relevant to stories told that night \u2014 including the same video shop Christ rented Waters\u2019 films from in the \u201980s, now acting as a set where Matthew Lillard\u2019s character Chip works. When Kathleen Turner\u2019s character Beverley killed a woman for wearing white shoes after Labor Day, Waters interjected: \u201cIt\u2019s true, you can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In one of her final sentiments, Christ said, \u201cthe remarkable thing about John Waters is that the world eventually caught up with him.\u201d After the film\u2019s run completed, another standing ovation began, playing Waters off into the night. The crowd spilled out of the theater in excited chatter, the foyer already reeking of cigarette smoke spilling in from crowds outside. They stood underneath the marquee, spelling his name in bright lights \u2014 indeed, the world caught up to him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On March 17, John Waters, screenwriter, director and proclaimed \u201cPope of Trash\u201d became the 35th honoree of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[26369,94749,1924,103888,1520,69324,103889,101,103,102,103890,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-228681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-castro-theatre","tag-criterion","tag-film","tag-frameline","tag-interview","tag-john-waters","tag-peaches-christ","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-serial-mom","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}