About — Z-Machine

Welcome to Z~Machine, the home of original documysteries, a place both wonderful & strange…

“Everything is a mystery and we’re all detectives.” - David Lynch

Inspired by the avant-garde work of the trailblazing Twin Peaks auteur, in July 2010, writer, researcher, narrator, and director, Jeff Finn, launched Z-Machine. Envisioned as a skeleton key that unlocks the gray areas of paradox, Finn’s one-man production company also was created as a DIY alternative to the predatory, wealth-addicted factions of the mainstream film industry that exploit true independent filmmakers while appropriating the term “Indie” as a corporate marketing genre.

In September 2011, Z-Machine, in association with Secret Handshake, offered its flagship “documystery,” Strange Septembers: The Hill Abduction & The Exeter Encounter, which reverse-engineers two of history’s most-credible UFO cases. Shot with a “punk-rock” aesthetic and initially intended as a micro-budget online short, Strange Septembers grew in scope and was chosen as the official-selection documentary of the 2011 Exeter UFO Festival. The film features exclusive interviews with actor James Earl Jones [Star Wars; The UFO Incident] and actress Estelle Parsons [Bonnie & Clyde; The UFO Incident], ufologists Stanton Friedman and Kathleen Marden, and Lt. Alan Brandt [U.S. Air Force] and Col. George Rubin [U.S. Army]. Additional interviews include the family and friends of primary UFO witnesses, Betty Hill and Barney Hill, Norman Muscarello, Eugene Bertrand, and David Hunt. The director’s cut, featuring narration by the film’s co-director, writer, and researcher, Jeff Finn, was produced in a limited-edition DVD set for the Exeter UFO Festival. Strange Septembers later was recut and officially released in April 2016 via Vimeo, with narration by actor Peter Weller [Naked Lunch; Star Trek Into Darkness].

When it comes to the mythic Jim Morrison, there’s the “truth.” And then there’s the REAL truth.

In July 2012, Z-Machine broke ground on Before the End: Searching for Jim Morrison, a documentary film about the iconic 1960s-era poet, songwriter, and vocalist of the Doors. Unlike prior Morrison media, Before the End’s focus is on the humanity behind the hype, including Jim’s formative years. The documystery features exclusive interviews with his brother, Andy Morrison, cousins, Ellen Edwards and David Backer, high school swim coach, Ash Jones, college roommate, Bryan Gates, Doors-era lovers, Judy Huddleston and Anne Moore, Doors booking agent, Todd Schiffman, Doors roadie, Gareth Blyth, the first appearance by Jim’s enigmatic Paris-era personal assistant, Robyn Wurtele, and “Mr. X,” an anonymous source whose surreal knowledge altered the film’s trajectory. Director and narrator Jeff Finn’s goal was to flesh out the boy and/or the man, in contrast to the infamous rock star. Over a decade in the making, the multi-part docuseries also deconstructs Morrison’s controversial Doors era and alleged July 1971 demise in Paris at age 27.

Dating back to October 1985, Jeff Finn logged 38 years of research into Jim Morrison’s legendary life and reported death. Despite Hollywood roadblocks in the form of egoism, disinformation, gaslighting, defamation, and collusion, in addition to online haters and trolls, Finn communicated with more than 1,000 people from Morrison’s orbit, and interviewed 100+ of them on-camera. Akin to the true indie doc, Soaked in Bleach, about Kurt Cobain, Before the End is “unauthorized” because it seeks the unvarnished truth.

Thanks to those who experienced him as a person, as opposed to a persona, Before the End: Searching for Jim Morrison finally will reveal the REAL James Douglas Morrison. The film will have its official release in 2024. Details forthcoming…