2004 - Z CHANNEL: A MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION, documentary about a movie nut

This documentary looks at the life of Jerry Harvey.  He was an  obsessed film buff who just happened to stumble into what for his was probably the job of a lifetime, programming a cable channel in Los Angeles with foreign and esoteric films that would have never been shown on HBO or Showtime.

The documentary is presented in the standard "talking heads" format as they say.  People associated with Jerry Harvey are interviewed an recall their interactions with him. 

Jerry Harvey was a troubled person to put it mildly.  It's   not a spoiler to say that he killed himself since this is presented at the beginning of the film. 

 

The film has quite a collection of interviewees.  Quentin Tarantino, Alexander Payne, Jacqueline Bisset, Theresa Russell, Jim Jarmish, Vilmos Zsigmond, F. X Sweeney, and Penelope Spheeris to name a few. It also includes many of Harvey's coworkers and friends.

 

My favorite moment is the filmmaker Alexander Payne complaining to Jerry Harvey that the letterboxing on a Kurosawa film was to wide and cut off a small part of the image, talk about movie nut obsession.

This is a fascinating documentary about film obsession which probably will have limited appeal to the not so obsessed film goer.  Still, highly recommended.

The running time is 122 minutes.