Cjrod3
Since most of us don't live in LA, we never heard of the Z Channel. According to this smug documentary, that means the rest of the American populace is composed of dimwits who don't even know what a foreign film is. You'd think Jerry Harvey created the whole film culture that exists today. Some of the "unknown" films featured here, such as "La Notte" and "This Man Must Die", that Harvey "rescued" from obscurity with the Z Channel were shown on a local TV station here in St. Louis in the mid-60's. And if you bothered to read Stanley Kauffman's "A World On Film" or Pauline Kael's "I Lost It At The Movies" back then, you might be almost as hip as the self-centered jerks Jarmusch and Tarantino. There were many art-house theaters in mid-America back in the 50's and 60's that showed foreign films, often at a money losing cost. Maybe someday someone could make a film about that cultural anomaly, instead of another overblown tribute to the superior intellect of Angelenos. Get lost, LA, and take your crappy sequels and remakes of stinky TV shows with you.
Doug Galecawitz
a pretty straight forward documentary about an early pay cable movie channel, yet this movie itself serves if anything to pique an interest in the thousands of movie that disappear year after year into the oblivion of forgotten film. as a lover of film and viewer of far too few i find it fascinating that even with all the cable options now available there are so few willing to take the types of risk involved in old film, foreign films, crass films, art films, short films and combine them in the manner that doesn't insult the viewers intelligence. this movie in and of itself may not be terribly interesting, but it will perhaps stir the imagination towards other movies that you may never forget.
MisterWhiplash
For the movie buff in us all, whether casual or die-hard, the story of Jerry Harvey, who pioneered independent pay-TV services, is the story of the tragic hero, whom for the people who subscribed to his Z channel got the best of the best in international cinema, and then some. He started out booking films into theaters, usually obscure titles and films people should (but don't) seem to care about. Then he moved his ambitions to television, where he and a small office of support created the Z Channel, a kind of dark horse alongside the up and coming HBO and Showtime and Cinemax. All they showed were movies, mostly foreign films or westerns or crime films (Harvey, we learn, was a great friend of Sam Peckinpah, as well as Michael Cimino), and were also profitable in showing the 'Night Owl' films (which today over-run Cinemax). He brought films like Once Upon a Time in America, Heaven's Gate, and the Leopard in their fully uncut, realized glory, helped usher in films that got over-looked, and for his time until the end of Z channel in 1989, he had his own underground dominion.But the film doesn't shy away from personal details either, details I dare not go into here. He had a troubled childhood, which spread as we learn in the film into his adult years. In between his movie deals and such he had peaks and valleys of depression and anxiety and anger issues, finally coming to a head when he murdered his wife, then himself. Though the film doesn't sugar-coat the details, some more surprising than others, it doesn't make him out to be a bad person. More than anything, director "Xan" Cassavetes (daughter of the director John) gives a fully realized human dimension to this man, at times a little eccentric, but very intelligent, and at the core someone who sought his salvation, entertainment, and enlightenment in great cinema. As other filmmakers like Jim Jarmusch, Quentin Tarantino, and Alexander Payne recant their recollections of what the channel had to offer them, the memories of discovering movies for the first time thanks to Harvey and the channel, it brings to mind something crucial that is a part of cinema.In a way, Harvey, in his limited resources (unfortunately, after Harvey's death Z channel went nowhere, never making it to the reputable, corporate heights of HBO and Showtime), did something that every movie buff needs- a friend to bring good, or great films to light, to recommend and turn people on to art that may not get shown on the Sunday afternoon movie. Through all of his flaws, mostly not of his fault to start with, he was a kind of independent pioneer in Pay-TV television, paving the way for a channel like IFC (which premiered the film, by the way), and for a larger group, that films should be seen without studio's censors and scissors, that the director's vision is paramount for a film fan. This documentary brings to light that, and as an extra bonus shows numerous, beautiful, and strange clips from films. Only thing missing are some archival clips from the actual Z channel itself, or Harvey in a TV interview.
No_Miss
It's doesn't take a genius to see why the Independent Film Channel would finance this documentary. Basically the Z Channel was the first movie channel to play independent, little seen, and foreign films. Featuring interviews with directors Quentin Tarantino, Robert Altman, and Alexander Pane, "Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession" focuses on the effect the channel had on the film industry. The station had among it's subscribers some of the biggest names in Hollywood. What I found fascinating about this film is the power a cable channel can have. For example James Woods credits his Oscar nomination to the Z Channel's constant playing of the little seen movie "Salvador" to the right people. As a film geek I also enjoyed the generous amount of film clips by director Cassavetes. The film turned me on to movies like "Bad Timing" and "F is for Fake".
