Walking John Waters' Path

John Waters is one of the most weird directors around for sure. You may know him for the famous, you know the eating scene in PINK FLAMINGOS, or you may say he is the one responsible for giving Johnny Depp the nickname Cry-Baby. But if you have not read enough about him, you may be completely ignorant about his story of becoming “the John Waters”. Well, luckily he was at the Berlinale Talent Campus in a discussion called “The Radical Way to Success” and gave advice to young filmmakers who want to walk in his path. We must add that it takes some courage, so take a deep breath.

Create Your Own Publicity
“It was this really aggressive marketing campaign that I'd done that made PINK FLAMINGOS known. I learned cinema by shooting films. Well that is not very radical. But the marketing is. I distributed the flyers for my premiere, that I had organised myself, in diners before the waitress kicked me out. I made Divine going into public transportation announcing the screenings. I held some screenings even at churches. If I managed to get one negative review published, I put that on the flyers and posters. Of course, I put up my own posters. Publicity is free so use it. I made the mistake of not paying for the music I used so be careful about that.”

Financing from Rich Relatives
“That is naturally afterwards the shooting so there is the problem of getting it done in the first place. I financed PINK FLAMINGOS with the money that I got from my father. Luckily, my father never saw the film he invested in. Be really nice to rich relatives and overcome the dream of investors who would put money in willingly. It is helpful to find some crazy friends that are willing to be actors. I did side jobs like writing to 'Rolling Stone' music reviews and to some other magazines. I shot most of my films in Baltimore, my hometown, so the location expenses went down. Finally, put some sex and violence in your first film to get some attention.”

Fighting the Rating System
“I started to face some problems with the rating system. The local video stores are closing down and big chain stores not selling films with R or NC17 ratings. So my latest film DIRTY SHAME got effected with the ratings. You should protest by putting porn films in big video stores shelves or recording a porn scene in the middle of a Disney movie.”

His Followers
“One critic was writing things like John Waters must be proud of JACKASS movies; in fact I am. I also starred in the second one. My next project can surprise you in fact: a children’s film by John Waters. I know you are curious now but I believe that talking about the film before shooting brings bad luck.”

Nil Kural

© Berlinale Talent Campus 2007