This IFC-produced documentary is filled with former employees and aficionados of the Z channel, a Los Angeles based pay channel during the 1980s. To observe Alexander Payne (who sports his Z channel T-shirt) and Quentin Tarantino (who demonstrates a hostile enthusiasm for Claude Chabrol’s work) relay their affection for the channel’s programming – which earned a now legendary reputation for airing director’s cuts of Heaven’s Gate, 1900, and Once Upon a Time in America – is infectuous, and also depressive since no cable channel seems to rival the unprecedented quality of Z channel in its prime. The success in locating this niche audience is attributed to the channel’s late programmer, Jerry Harvey; I was less engaged by his tragic story than by the robust, Euro-centric library of films that Harvey located and aired. This film’s doubled the length of my video store grocery list.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: DVD screener
17 Aug 2005 10:03 AM | Comments (1)
I was totally impressed by this, simply for the fact that being a lifetime New Yorker, I had no idea LA actually had a creative outlet like this.
Tim Nolan
19 August 2005
9:15 AM
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