About

Welcome to Z-Machine Productions, home to original documysteries.

Z-Machine was born of a passion for life’s mysteries and the gray areas of information that comprise those mysteries. Jeff Finn launched Z-Machine in July 2010. Jeff is a writer, researcher and director.

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In September 2011, Z-Machine, in association with Secret Handshake, offered its flagship documentary feature, Strange Septembers: The Hill Abduction & The Exeter Encounter. The film, which features interviews with actors James Earl Jones [Star Wars] and Estelle Parsons [Bonnie & Clyde], and ufologists Stanton Friedman and Kathleen Marden, had its official premiere at the 2011 Exeter UFO Festival. 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 exclusively for the festival. Strange Septembers: The Hill Abduction & The Exeter Encounter was later recut and officially released in April 2016 via Vimeo, with new narration by actor Peter Weller [Naked Lunch].

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

In July 2012, Z-Machine Productions broke ground on Before the End: Searching for Jim Morrison, an independent documentary film about the iconic and infamous 1960s-era musician, poet and filmmaker. Before the End is unlike prior Morrison-related media in that its focus is on the humanity behind the hype, including Morrison’s formative years, via filmed interviews [featuring an exclusive with Jim’s brother, Andy Morrison] with those who knew the boy and/or the man in contrast to the mythic rock star. The multi-part docuseries also deconstructs Morrison’s controversial Doors era and mysterious alleged demise in Paris at age 27 in July 1971.

Jeff Finn logged 35 years of research into Jim Morrison’s legendary life and reported death. During the film’s production, Finn touched base with more than 1,000 people connected to Morrison and interviewed 100+ of them on-camera. Before the End is “unauthorized” largely in that 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.