Billed to students as a talk, this year’s iteration of the annual Kenneth V. Santagata lecture—given by transgressive filmmaker John Waters yesterday evening—could be described as more of a stand-up comedy set. During the hour-long show, the crowd in Pickard Theater was rarely without laughter as Waters wittily worked his way through some of the thorniest topics possible: gender, politics, race and abortion, to name a few.

Following the event, a smaller group of students and faculty had the opportunity to ask questions and take photos with the speaker in a gathering that Waters called a “group therapy session.”

Although his off-color humor may have come as a surprise to some, the event, titled “Devil’s Advocate—John Waters,” certainly lived up to the director’s reputation. Waters is known as a fiercely independent, subversive and often controversial artist from self-described “trash” movies such as “Pink Flamingos” and more widely known cult classics such as “Hairspray.”

Professor of Cinema Studies Tricia Welsch and Professor of Theater Davis R. Robinson, who introduced Waters on Thursday night, spearheaded the effort to bring him to Bowdoin. Both said that Waters’s unflinching artistic expression and fierce criticism of authority—anchored by a genuine sense of kindness—inspired them to invite him to campus.

“Looking back at [his] films now, I’m just amazed that he had this vision,” Robinson said. “He makes fun of hypocrisy, he makes fun of and subverts [the 1950s sense of normality] because he was such an outsider…. You realize all he’s really doing is putting on the table things people weren’t talking about.”

Welsch added that Waters’s unique creativity makes him an important figure to students attending the talk.

“I think he has a very strong sense about what it means to be kind in the world and accept other people … which is maybe not the first thing you think of,” Welsch said. “I really admire that he has been able to just do his own thing for many years…. He seems like a person who has some things to tell us about how to make a good creative life in the arts.”

Robinson also mentioned that one of their goals for the event was to inspire further engagement in the arts on campus—especially since an artist of Waters’s caliber hadn’t been hosted at Bowdoin since the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We hadn’t had anybody in a little while—since post-pandemic, really…. When you do have someone come visit, like a Stephen Sondheim or Tony Kushner or Susan Lori Parks, usually there’s a four or five year afterglow of their impact on people and the kinds of projects people want to do,” Robinson said.

Given that Waters is lesser known among current Bowdoin students than older generations, Welsch organized a small film festival and led a “Bad Taste” book club over the past few weeks to increase understanding of his work ahead of the event.

Bart D’Alauro ’95, a library annex and media services specialist at the Hawthorne Longfellow Library and cinema enthusiast, introduced several of the films during the festival over the last two weekends and emphasized the importance of introducing Waters to a newer generation of fans.

“When I was talking to students about this beforehand, a lot of them had no idea who John Waters was. And there wasn’t a huge turnout at the film festival, but there were a bunch of people who were there at every single one,” D’Alauro said. “I’m just excited that a new generation is discovering John Waters.”

Justin Whitney ’25, who read Waters’ book “Carsick” at the Bad Taste book club and attended last night’s event, was inspired by the audience’s positive response to Waters.

“It feels like a necessary thing,” Whitney said. “We hear a lot about cancel culture and everything, but I think, in general, people are a lot more willing to open their minds than you give them credit for.”