I Am Divine

Aficionados of the films of John Waters will need no introduction to his muse Divine, a 300-pound drag queen who, among other startling style choices, shaved his hairline absurdly high because, as Waters explains in Jeffrey Schwarz's affectionate documentary, "there wasn't enough space on the human head for the amount of eye make-up he wanted to wear". Born in conservative 1940s Baltimore, Harris Glenn Milstead struggled with both his weight and bullies before meeting Waters, conjuring up Divine, and starring in the Pope of Trash's early underground films such as Female Trouble and Pink Flamingos (in which he notoriously ate dog faeces). Schwarz interviews friends and fans, piecing together a picture of a gentle, perhaps surprisingly shy man who channelled his family's rejection and his anger at society into his outrageous alter-ego. He eventually felt trapped by his creation but was on the cusp of attaining mainstream recognition after Waters's surprise 1988 hit Hairspray landed him a role in a popular TV sitcom. Tragically, he died of a heart attack the day before filming.