Synopsis

Eighteen-year-old Baltimore sandwich-shop worker Pecker photographs his eccentric family, friends, and neighborhood with an old camera. When a New York art dealer discovers his candid images, Pecker becomes an overnight sensation. As collectors and media turn his private world into a fashionable commodity, his sudden fame strains his relationships and threatens the community that inspired his work.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film was shot and set in Baltimore, John Waters' hometown. Its contrast between a close-knit working-class neighborhood and the New York art world reflects one of the movie's central ideas.

• Waters said that parts of Pecker's experience were drawn from his own life, particularly the way people assumed he had become wealthy after the success of Pink Flamingos and outsiders' expectations that he would show them Baltimore's "low life."

• The Motion Picture Association of America initially objected to the title Pecker. Waters and his lawyers challenged the decision, and the title was eventually approved.

• Waters had used the name "Pecker" for characters in earlier drafts of other projects before making it the title character's name. He chose it because he considered the word funny, while emphasizing that it is not used sexually in the film.

• The opening image of the Washington Monument in Baltimore refers to a local joke: viewed from a particular direction, the statue's shaft resembles an uncircumcised penis.

• The film features appearances by figures from the art and fashion worlds, including Cindy Sherman and Greg Gorman, reinforcing its satirical portrait of the contemporary art scene.

• Stewart Copeland, best known as the drummer of the Police, composed the film's score.

• Pecker was released in the United States by Fine Line Features on September 25, 1998.