FILM PREVIEW: DOOZY to be screened @Fabrica

Where does the character end and the actor begin?

QUITE simply a ‘doozy’ of a film experience… With his flamboyant persona and acerbic delivery, in-the-closet comedian and actor Paul Lynde became one of America’s best-known television personalities in the 60s and 70s.

Along with recurring roles in the likes of Bewitched and his coveted position in the ‘centre square’ on glitzy gameshow Hollywood Squares, Lynde also lent his distinctive voice to a series of villainous characters in animation studio Hanna-Barbera’s productions.

In DOOZY, artist-filmmaker Richard Squires creates animated antihero ‘Clovis’ (voiced by Kids in the Hall comedian Mark McKinney) to look through the lens of one of Hollywood’s hidden queer histories by re-enacting some of the wilder episodes from Lynde’s colourful life. The film uses Clovis to contemplate the uncomfortable parallel between cartoon villainy and hysterical masculinity; the use of voice to signify ‘otherness’ and the frequently uneasy relationship between character and actor.

Creative documentary DOOZY mixes original animation, re-enactment, archive and expert testimony into a unique new work and received its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival in 2018 and its international premiere at Rotterdam International Film Festival 2019, competing in the Bright Future strand.

The first night of the film tour takes place in Brighton at Fabrica, 40 Duke St, Brighton on April 23, followed by a Q&A with Director Richard Squires, producer Abigail Addison and Videoclub curator and academic Jamie Wyld.