GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Borgarkeri A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Monkeywess This is an astonishing documentary that will wring your heart while it bends your mind

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

nomoons11 Unfortunately in our time of mass consumerism and where everything is widely available, the feeling of getting to see something rare or hard to find is gone. There was a time when it existed and that time was the early 1970's in southern California. The only way to see rare and forgotten films was Z channel.Where I think this doc shines is the mentioning of so many rare films. You'll need a pen and piece of paper to write em all down cause there are so many worth seeing. You'll be searching the net to find the uncut version of "1900" or the uncut version of "Heavens Gate". There are so many foreign films mentioned you barely have time to take it all in.On the flip side of this fascinating story we get the Zen Master of films lovers in Jerry Harvey. The basic story of his life comes down to a guy who loves film to a degree that he makes it his life. The problem is that he has an underlying mental/psychological issue that pretty much makes him a little off kilter to everyone he met/knew. Most just threw it aside and said..that's just who he is. You get to get deeper into his past and find out that he and his family have had a troubled history. The end of his life shouldn't have been a surprise because his family history foresaw what his life was gonna end up like. He just happened to be a guy who loved rare/foreign art films like some of us do but without that...he was pretty much mental hospital bound if he didn't. Right up until the end, he held it together but when Z Channel started to change, it was too much to deal with.Only see this doc if you are a serious "film" lover. If you just like "movies', pass this one by...you just won't understand it.

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.

preppy-3 Back in 1974 a pay TV station was started in Los Angeles. It was the Z channel--it showed movies uncut with no commercials. It was a pioneer--years before Showtime, HBO and Cinemax. But Z channel showed films no one else would air--foreign films, independent features. A lot of important film were discovered (or rediscovered) on this channel. It ran the uncut "Heaven's Gate" after the disastrous cut version was released; the same with "Once Upon A Time In America"; it introduced "Bad Timing" to an audience after it's minor theatrical release; "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" found its audience here; the complete 9 hour version of "1900" was shown here and on and on. Also, some of these films had X ratings--but Z didn't cut them. MANY clips of the various films are shown here.It's also about it's owner and programming director--Jerry Harvey. It explains what drove him and how he singlehandedly found these films and showed them. Unfortunately he was also suffering from personal demons which ended up killing him.I didn't know anything about this station--and I'm upset that I grew up on the East Coast and not the West Coast. The programming this station had was fascinating and is inter cut with people who worked there and directors it helped. This is an absolutely fascinating look at the kind of pay TV station we'll never see again and the men and women who ran it. Just great--a definite must-see! A 10 all the way.

curtis martin The makers of "Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession" take a potentially fascinating subject and completely botch it. I have to admit that I only got through about a half hour of the thing, but I can only wait so long for a film to let me know it's going somewhere.I'd never heard of Z-Channel before and was very interested to find out about it, but the filmmakers refused to present me with a clear context or history of their subject. Too much was assumed before any solid groundwork was laid. All I was getting was just a bunch of vaguely connected quotes about a vaguely defined subject and wild praise of someone I had been told nothing significant about who had apparently done something amazing, though what exactly that something was remained foggy. It's confusing and annoying to be repeatedly told of the significance and importance of something before that thing is fully explained. Maybe say it once, to peak my interest, but not over and over from different people time and again. Get to the point! Tell the story!Now, I admit that I could tell that this was supposed to be the story of a movie fan named Jerry Harvey who was involved with the first pay movie channel, but that was about it--and I think I should have known more after half an hour! I'm pretty sure that other people like me, people who had never heard of Z-channel before, were similarly bored or confused. This film was obviously not created for us, but for people already "in the know." And that kind of seems to defeats the purpose if you ask me.