DOOZY

Dir: Richard Squires

70 mins, 2K DCP, Dolby 5.1

2018

Clovis: Mark McKinney

Don: Michael Kearns

Jim: Eric Geynes

Co-Producer: Madeleine Molyneaux

Associate Producer: Abigail Addison

Animation: Elroy Simmons

Cinematography: Willy Busfield, Barbara Nicholls

Composer: Oliver Davis

Sound Design: Chu-Li Shewring

Consultant Editor: Lucy Harris

With John Airlie, Jens Kjeldgaard-Christiansen, Mark Micale, Naomi Murphy, Sophie Scott and Paul Wells

Funded by Wellcome and Arts Council England

Creative documentary DOOZY is the debut feature from artist-filmmaker Richard Squires. Exploring the voice casting of American actor Paul Lynde as a series of Hanna Barbera villains in the late 1960s, animated antihero ‘Clovis’ re-enacts a number of alleged stories from the actor’s life, whilst experts take part in a curious gameshow and residents from Lynde’s Ohio hometown remember the talented star with affection. Through the lens of one of Hollywood’s hidden queer histories, DOOZY contemplates cartoon villainy and hysterical masculinity; the use of voice to signify ‘otherness’ and the frequently uneasy relationship between character and actor.

DOOZY had its world premiere at BFI London Film Festival 2018 and its international premiere at IFFR, Rotterdam 2019, competing in the Bright Future strand. Other festival screeenings included Queer Lisboa 2019 and Durban Gay & Lesbian Film Festival 2019. DOOZY toured UK cinemas and venues in April-May 2019.

‘Doozy’ Deconstructed: Paul Lynde’s voicing of Hanna Barbera’s animated villains a paper by Squires discussing the film’s research and animation processes, was published in Animation Practice, Process and Production journal, Volume 9 (Intellect).

Distribution Light Cone

VOD UK Amazon / VOD US Amazon

DVD France / VOD Worldwide (French version) Harmattan

VOD (Latin America, Scandinavia) Glitch

Doozy: the Triumph of Failure by Benedict Morrison

Doozy Phoenix Leicester post-screening discussion with Richard Squires, Abigail Addison and Paul Wells

Doozy Birkbeck Vasari post-screening discussion with Richard Squires, Joel McKim and John Airlie

BFI Anatomy of an Artist’s Film Production

Richard Squires on Doozy: queer life, laughter and cartoon villainy Sight & Sound interview Helen de Witt

Innovation in Animation Electric Sheep podcast

Richard Squires and Abigail Addison on ‘Doozy’ at Flatpack interview José Arroyo

Richard Squires talks about Doozy Alt/Kino interview Ben Nicholson

‘Inverts and treacherous homos’ Doozy takes on cartoon villainy D&C interview

Doozy – In Conversation with Richard Squires Electric Ghost interview Manon Girault

Hoxton Movies interviews Richard Squires for Doozy

Doozy: A conversation between Richard Squires and Elroy Simmons  Fantasy/Animation

“DOOZY shows how animation is always about the queer complication of identity, the rebodying of disembodied voices, and the productively defective (mis)representation of the straight world.”

Doozy: the Triumph of Failure Benedict Morrison

“Filtering the turbulent life of comedian and voice actor Paul Lynde through the zany tropes of his art, Richard Squires’ DOOZY is a work of deceptively kitschy surfaces. Like a muffled cry for help, the anguish of Squires’ emotionally repressed subject is warped and stifled by the schemas of pop culture, flattening the star into a literally two-dimensional caricature.”

David Pountain, Film Doo

“As much as DOOZY is downright educational in its presentation, it always strives to keep you slightly on the back foot; just a little bit off-kilter as you dig into the material… A surprising look at Lynde’s work as it intersected with his closeted homosexuality”

Kara Dennison, We Are Cult

“This offbeat documentary about irrepressible actor-comic Paul Lynde refuses to take the usual route through his life, opting for a wider academic exploration of fame and sexuality while indulging in some animated flights of fancy… the resulting movie is resolutely quirky.”

Rich Kline, Shadows on the Wall