John Waters

John Waters

Directing

April 22, 1946
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
132 movies

Biography

John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including Multiple Maniacs (1970), Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble (1974). Waters wrote and directed the comedy film Hairspray (1988), which was later adapted into a hit Broadway musical and a 2007 musical film. Other films he has written and directed include Desperate Living (1977), Polyester (1981), Cry-Baby (1990), Seri...

🎬 John Waters's Filmography

132 movies sorted by popularity

Yesterday's Tomorrows
8.5

Showtime's "In the 20th Century" is a millennium-related strand of feature-length documentaries in which famous directors take on major subjects of their choosing. In the third of the six films, "Yesterday's Tomorrows," filmmaker Barry Levinson delves into what we, as Americans, thought the future would be as we traveled through the 20th century. Houses and cars of the future, the promise of technology, and the other hopes and dreams of the early part of the century gave way to the fears and anxieties brought about by the atomic age and the Hollywood disaster films that followed. Soon we wondered if we could control technology, or if it would control us. This film is by turns light-hearted and thoughtful, and rare historical and archival film, produced by government and industry, alternates with on-screen interviews with people as diverse as consumer advocate Ralph Nader, cartoonist Matt Groening, futurist Alvin Toffler, comedienne Phyllis Diller, and actor Martin Mull.

Yesterday's Tomorrows

1999
Gays Against Guns

Gays Against Guns takes us to the frontlines of the American gun violence epidemic, seen through the eyes of an Irish immigrant, who left Ireland when it was illegal to be gay in search of the ‘Gay American Dream’. But the Pulse nightclub massacre changed everything. It was the worst mass shooting in the U.S. at that time, and the catalyst for the formation of an extraordinary new activist group - Gays Against Guns. We follow our narrator, the filmmaker, from neon splashed street protests into the corridors of power, as he documents GAG’s actions over a ten year period, from that fateful night in Orlando, through the chaos of today’s unhinged, divided America. Featuring legendary filmmaker John Waters, this is an inspiring David and Goliath story for our turbulent times - a testament to resilience, community, and the power of caring for a total stranger.

Gays Against Guns

2026
The 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin
6.0

Guy Maddin, who has been nicknamed the Canadian David Lynch, is undoubtedly one of the last remaining Magi of cinema. Despite living in the middle of the digital age, this heretical director hailing from the snowy plains of Canada has spent 25 years transposing the uncommon and the uncanny onto screens over-saturated with naturalistic imagery. A lover of primitive cinema, he has cunningly summoned the light-and-shadow techniques and experimentations of the Golden Age of film to resuscitate a unique cinematographic language which plays with the spectator’s unconscious by means of visual trickery as disturbing as it is absurd. In an attitude as playful at that Maddin’s films this documentary follows the mediumistic experiments of this master of illusion, filmed during the ‘’spirit’’ shootings he presented in Europe.

The 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin

2015
The Advocate for Fagdom
6.0

The Advocate for Fagdom unites the puzzle pieces one by one. Testimonies are combined with rare archive images. Art galeries present movie extracts that are succeeded by images shot on location. And the other way round. Writers, film makers, art galeries owners, actors and actresses, photographers, producers, friends and loved ones all join in a game of interpretation, analysis or simple anecdotes. John Waters, Bruce Benderson, Harmony Korine, Gus Van Sant, Richard Kern, Rick Castro and others deliver their impressions, theories and confessions. Everything blends into the fascinating portrait of a singular person blessed with singular talents. A complex personality at war not with a system but all systems. The portrait of a man constantly moving between his punk attitude and extreme sensibility.

The Advocate for Fagdom

2011
Closer Than That: A Documentary on Low

Shot over the course of two years, Closer Than That finds the members of Duluth "slo-core" band Low (Alan Sparhawk, Mimi Parker, and Zak Sally) going through old photos, enduring awkward press interviews, serenading the baby, navigating traffic jams, and occasionally coming across observations on music, spirituality, and life. Director Marc Gartman traveled with them on tour across the US and Europe, capturing not only Low's performances, but also quiet moments backstage and in transit between gigs. Before one of their European shows, Alan is asked how the band would like to be introduced. He answers, "slow...quiet...really nice people with a baby." This video document gives us a glimpse of the very real, understated folks behind the great minimal rock band.

Closer Than That: A Documentary on Low

2004
John Waters | MovieMind AI