Jeff Finn is a documentary filmmaker who has set out to uncover the real story surrounding the death of Jim Morrison of The Doors. Before the End: Searching for Jim Morrison is a first of its kind “documystery” series that will make its global TVOD/Digital release on January 13, 2025, following Morrison’s 81st birthday, and will be available on all the major platforms of Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, and YouTube TV, with more to follow.

A dozen years in the making, Before the End’s cryptic tagline encapsulates its investigative approach: “One Man. Countless Myths. And in between lies the truth.” Z-Machine founder, Jeff Finn’s extraordinary detail work breaks the decades long hermetic seal on the traumatic formative years that forged a brief hellacious life, through Morrison’s controversial career as lead singer of legendary 1960s rock band, The Doors, to his reported 1971 death by “heart failure” in Paris at age 27. Morrison’s ostensible demise, technically an unsolved cold case, formed its own rabbit hole of reasonable doubt, which inspired Finn to consult with private investigators and forensic analysts.

Before the End transcends “rock doc” in the same sense that Jim Morrison was more than a rock star. Featuring unprecedented content, from shocking corroboration about Morrison’s early life, to harrowing revelations about his stardom, and fresh evidence that contradicts his professed death, Before the End: Searching for Jim Morrisonisproudly unauthorized because it “seeks the unvarnished truth.” The documystery reverse-engineers long-controlled narratives while it explores the notion of Morrison the nonconformist as neurodivergent, and deconstructs – through on-camera interviews with family, friends, lovers, classmates, and associates – key distinctions between Jim Morrison, “rock god,” and James Douglas Morrison, introverted outsider.

Among those interviewed and/or featured are Morrison’s cousins, Ellen Edwards and David Backer, lovers, Anne Moore, Gayle Enochs, Judy Huddleston, and Suzanne Roady-Ross, friends, Mirandi Babitz and Salli Stevenson, Elektra Records founder, Jac Holzman, The Doors booking agent, Todd Schiffman, The Doors roadie, Gareth Blyth, screenwriter, Randall Jahnson, rock critics, Ellen Sander and Richard Meltzer, UCLA classmates, Philip Oleno and Richard Blackburn, UCLA roommate, Ron Cohen, UCLA professor, Dick Adams, Florida State University roommates, Bryan Gates and John McQueen, FSU professor, Ralph Turner, Alameda High School swim coach, Ash Jones, childhood friend, Jeff Morehouse, Paris-era acquaintances, Philippe Dalecky and Gilles Yepremian, and exclusives via Jim’s brother, Andy Morrison, Robyn Wurtele, Morrison’s enigmatic Paris-era assistant, and “Mr. X,” a mind-blowing anonymous source.

Z-Machine is a truly independent production company helmed by writer and filmmaker, Jeff Finn, whose tie-in book, 127 Fascination: Jim Morrison Decoded, is forthcoming.