Vincent Peranio

Notorious Baltimore criminal and underground figure Divine goes up against Connie & Raymond Marble, a sleazy married couple who make a passionate attempt to humiliate her and seize her tabloid-given title as "The Filthiest Person Alive".

Harris Glenn Milstead, aka Divine (1945-1988) was the ultimate outsider turned underground hero. Spitting in the face of the status quos of body image, gender identity, sexuality, and preconceived notions of beauty, Divine succeeded in becoming an internationally recognized icon, recording artist, and character actor of stage and screen. Glenn went from the often-mocked, schoolyard fat kid to underdog royalty, standing up for millions of gay men and women, drag queens and punk rockers, and countless other socially ostracized misfits and freaks. With a completely committed in-your-face style, he blurred the line between performer and personality, and revolutionized pop culture.

The Cavalcade of Perversion, a traveling freak show, acts as a front for Divine, who is out for blood after discovering her lover's affair.

Teenage delinquent Dawn Davenport, incensed after her parents do not give her the cha-cha heels she wanted for Christmas, runs away from home. After an illegitimate child and hairstylist husband bring her more misery, she's enticed into a life of crime when the owners of her husband's salon promise her fame and fortune.

A documentary about actress Edith Massey in which she talks about her life and her career in film.

Documentary tracing the history of Hairspray from screen to stage and back to the screen. Featuring interviews with John Waters, Ricki Lake, Marissa Jaret Winokur, and more. Produced for the “Hairspray” DVD.

An American short documentary video about the opening of Edith Massey's thrift store in Baltimore.

Special feature from Criterion’s release of Desperate Living, where writer-director John Waters tours the Baltimore location that served as the site of Mortville, the twisted penal colony inhabited by fugitives, outcasts, and deviants – including hysterical housewife Peggy Gravel and her fed-up housekeeper – and presided over by the despotic Queen Carlotta.

Featurette on the making of John Waters' "Polyester." Produced for The Criterion Collecton.

Produced for The Criterion Collecton.

Documentary about the making of John Waters' 1990 film Cry-Baby.