What an exhilarating screening of the 50th Anniversary restoration of John Waters’s outrageous “Pink Flamingos” in PTown last night. Walking down Commercial Street, the town’s main drag, after the packed show I was light-headed from laughing so hard. At Town Hall here, John Waters (pictured) introduced his 1972 film recalling that after unveiling the movie in his hometown of Baltimore back then he brought “Pink Flamingos” here (later taking it to LA and New York). This is John’s 58th summer living in PTown and he’s been supporting and championing Provincetown’s charming (super fun) film festival since it started back in the late 90s. Thirteen years ago I attended the Provincetown International Film Festival for just the second time. For my Indiewire dispatch that year — Bicycles, Boats, John Waters & Film as Art Boost Surviving Provincetown Fest — I sat with then festival head Gabby Hanna. She’d taken a break from working in the box office to chat. The PTown festival was facing uncertainty back then. After budget cuts, staff pay reductions, and losing a screening venue, Gabby Hanna was determined to find a way forward for the organization. “Being a five-day festival, it’s very hard to raise money,” Gabby told me back in ’09...”The last couple of years have been a struggle.” She had her sights set on taking over Provincetown’s local art house cinema as a home for the Festival (and a year-round film society). On the cusp of their 25th edition next year — and now with dear friend Anne Hubbell at the helm of the non profit org — the Provincetown Film Society is on much more solid ground. Gabby Hanna saw things optimistically back then, imagining a promising future that she and the team here are realizing now that they own the Waters Edge cinema, and run a Film Society, Institute, Festival, and Cinema. She proclaimed back then, “It will help us survive.” Indeed it has. [Visit PtownFilm.org for more info on the Provincetown Film Society.]