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
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
