Billy Flanigan is Disney's longest-serving contract performer (now 40 years!). This is the story of triumph through tragedy and how he spread a little fairy dust across the country during the Covid crisis. It also tells of how he was able to use the unprecedented time and isolation to heal old wounds and restore relationships.
The full-length feature film was written and directed by the brilliant and talented Cullen Douglas, filmed while we were all still shuttered away in our homes and hovels. I knew that all of the interviews were conducted online, and I couldn't really imagine how that could be presented effectively. But the medium provided an immediacy and a startling intimacy for which I was completely unprepared. Footage from over 4 decades is seamlessly woven throughout, as are phone videos made of Billy arriving unexpectedly at people's homes, capturing in real time the impact that his seemingly simple gesture had on them during those dark days.
The graphic effects, the art, and the music wonderfully capture the spirit of Disney at its best, embodied so fully by Billy Flanigan. Douglas' own long career as actor on stage and screen (both big and small) and writer have clearly contributed to his remarkable narrative ability. The sensitivity he brought to the multi-award-winning 2019 short film *Portrait of a Woman at Dawn* is abundantly evident in this new film. He clearly engenders trust and creates a space that allows each of the speakers - many of whom are not performers - to be open, vulnerable and genuine, even when discussing very painful events. Yet Douglas never stoops to facile sentimentality, expertly avoiding emotional manipulation (of speakers and audience) and over-dramatized expression.
In short, Douglas tells a story that is worth telling, and he he tells it very, very well.
