Episode 781: Z Channel - A Magnificent Obsession (2004)

Episode 781: Z Channel - A Magnificent Obsession (2004)

Adam Long and Josh Hadley join Mike to explore Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004), the sweeping documentary from Xan Cassavetes about the rise and fall of Los Angeles’s most influential pay-TV channel. More than a cable station, Z Channel was a film school beamed into living rooms, programming uncut movies, international cinema, director’s cuts, and repertory favorites long before that was standard practice.

The conversation digs into the channel’s daring programming philosophy, its outsized impact on American film culture, and the obsessive, self-destructive personality of founder Jerry Harvey. The hosts examine how the documentary balances cinephile nostalgia with a clear-eyed look at the personal and institutional costs of that obsession, while also asking what Z Channel’s legacy means in today’s algorithm-driven media landscape.

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Episoder(1000)

Special Report: Julie Wyman on The Tallest Dwarf (2025)

Special Report: Julie Wyman on The Tallest Dwarf (2025)

Mike sits down with Julie Wyman, director of The Tallest Dwarf — a documentary that is as personal as it is political. When filmmaker and UC Davis professor Julie Forrest Wyman set out to make The Tal...

11 Mar 21min

Special Report: Christine La Monte on Viva Verdi! (2025)

Special Report: Christine La Monte on Viva Verdi! (2025)

Christine La Monte discusses her career and her latest work producing a pair of opera-themed documentaries, the uplifting Viva Verdi! (2025) and the stunning Ai Weiwei's Turandot (2025). La Monte talk...

5 Mar 48min

Episode 789:  Head-On (2004)

Episode 789: Head-On (2004)

Collision as courtship. Self-destruction as intimacy. Fatih Akın’s Head-On (2004) opens with two suicide attempts and spirals into a sham marriage between Cahit (Birol Ünel) and Sibel (Sibel Kekilli),...

4 Mar 1h 5min

Special Report: The Oldest Person in the World (2026)

Special Report: The Oldest Person in the World (2026)

Sound designer Mark A. Mangini returns to The Projection Booth to discuss The Oldest Person in the World (2026), the Sam Green documentary about the successive holders of the oldest person title.Mark ...

3 Mar 32min

Special Report: Derek Boonstra on Seized (2026)

Special Report: Derek Boonstra on Seized (2026)

Mike talks with editor Derek Boonstra about his work on Seized (2026). Premiering recently at Sundance Film Festival, the documentary traces the human fallout of asset forfeiture and the legal gray zo...

2 Mar 19min

Special Report: Andres Landau on Nuisance Bear (2026)

Special Report: Andres Landau on Nuisance Bear (2026)

Mike talks with editor Andres Landau about his work editing the 2026 documentary, Nuisance Bear. A sobering look at the uneasy relationship between polar bears and humans when humans are infringing on...

27 Feb 29min

Special Report: Angelo Madsen on A Body to Live In (2025)

Special Report: Angelo Madsen on A Body to Live In (2025)

Director Angelo Madsen joins Mike to discuss his latest film, the 2025 documentary A Body to Live In which focuses on the body artist Fakir Musafar who spent his lifetime manipulating his physical for...

26 Feb 24min

Episode 788: Welcome to Woop Woop (1997)

Episode 788: Welcome to Woop Woop (1997)

Australia month crashes to a delirious halt with 1997’s Welcome to Woop Woop, Directed by Stephan Elliott and adapted from Douglas Kennedy's The Dead Heart by screenwriter Michael Thomas, the film str...

25 Feb 2h 3min

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