John Waters, the cult filmmaker known as the “Pope of Trash”, reflects on turning 80 while continuing to host Oakland’s Mosswood Meltdown punk festival with deliberately provocative humour. His refusal to become more conventional matters because it underlines the longevity of a career built on satirising social norms, shock comedy and independent creative control.

Waters has hosted the 12-year-old festival since it began, introducing acts including Iggy Pop, Bikini Kill, Pavement and The Return of Jackie and Judy with jokes he writes himself. He says he writes every morning, keeps joke files and has never used outside writers for his films, crediting constant reading and curiosity with sustaining a 60-year career on his own terms. He also argues that his early work was punk before the genre was formally established, and names Johnny Knoxville’s Jackass films as the closest modern successor to Pink Flamingos.