Doozy
Feature-length experimental documentary film focusing on LGBTQ characters in Hollywood cinema, and the fabrication of ‘otherness’ through the deeply-rooted conflation of villainy and homosexuality.
- Submitting institution
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Kingston University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 32-103-2087
- Type
- L - Artefact
- Location
- British Film Institute, London, U.K. (premiere)
- Open access status
- -
- Month of production
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- Year of production
- 2018
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- DOOZY (2018) is a feature-length experimental documentary by filmmaker Richard Squires revolving around the casting of closeted gay actor Paul Lynde in a number of animated villain roles, in Hanna-Barbera cartoons during the late 1960s. Based on this historical investigation, DOOZY deconstructs LGBTQ characters in Hollywood cinema, and the fabrication of ‘otherness’ through a deeply-rooted conflation of villainy and homosexuality. Squires puts forward a combination of expert testimony, archival material and original animation to subvert the normative character-actor dynamic, designing his own original cartoon villain for the film, Clovis – a character who re-enacts alleged semi-criminal events in the life of Lynde, presented in animated segments. In order to support this hybrid genre, Squires developed DOOZY through visits to Lynde’s hometown of Mount Vernon, Ohio; a survey of biographical texts and journal articles relating to Paul Lynde’s life in relevant archives; interviews with various people who knew Lynde or had written about him; animation composite tests for the character of Clovis; studying key texts relating to queer theory and film; and interviews with academics and experts in the scholarly fields relating to such texts. The latter constituted a particular area of deconstructive representation for Squires, as expert testimonies are delivered in DOOZY through a curious gameshow, where academics are sitting in Hollywood Squares-style boxes. By destabilising such genre conventions, DOOZY highlights the privileged capacity of animation to reflect the queer complication of identity, while revealing how ‘hysterical masculinity’ is communicated through the voice, personality and design of the character of the cartoon villain. The film had its world premiere 2018 BFI London Film Festival and has subsequently been screened across UK and abroad (The Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa). DOOZY was released on DVD and VOD in France (Harmattan Video), as well as on VOD in UK and US (Amazon), in2020.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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