Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004)

I watched Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004) the other night and found it to be really interesting. It’s a documentary film about one of the first pay-tv stations in the US and its brilliant programming chief, Jeff Harvey.

Harvey had a knack for finding obscure films and breathing new life into lesser known films by some famous directors—Robert Altman, Sam Peckinpah and Michael Cimino to name a few. Unfortunately for Z Channel, HBO and a other premium cable channels gave it a lot of competition.

Harvey suffered from depression and used to tell people that he was crazy. I suppose he was in the end because in the late 80s he killed his wife before committing suicide in LA. Shortly after that Z Channel also faded into obscurity.

One of the great things about this documentary is that it mentions a lot of obscure films that merit some attention. Here is a list of films that I hope to track down and watch at some point:

Overlord (1975) — directed by Stuart Cooper
Mädchen in Uniform (1931)
Silver Streak (1976)
Fingers (1978)
Bad Timing (1980)
The Passenger (1975)

Has anyone seen any of these films?