As I’ve mentioned here before, Jaws is a movie that’s always been near and dear to my heart. I realize I am not alone in this, especially now that I’ve seen the fan-made documentary The Shark Is Still Working: The Impact and Legacy of Jaws. A true labor of love – maybe even a labor of obsession – the nearly three-hour film has been in the works for four years, which is a good thing since several of the principal participants are no longer with us. (Peter Benchley, author of the novel Jaws, died in 2006, and February 10th will mark the one-year anniversary of the death of Roy Scheider, who played Chief Brody and narrates this documentary.) The Shark Is Still Working is required viewing for any Jaws fanatic, but for the moment, at least, that’s a problem: the documentary has yet to secure distribution, although it seems a no-brainer that Universal should pick it up for DVD release at least.

Wisely, director Erik Hollander and his crew have not made another behind-the-scenes “Making of Jaws” doc, instead confining the familiar production tales to the first fifteen minutes or so. (The film’s title comes from a story Richard Dreyfuss could tell in his sleep by now, about walking around Martha’s Vineyard during production and hearing the constant squawk of two-way radios: “The shark is not working! Repeat! The shark is not working!”) Instead, Still Working is an exhaustive – and occasionally exhausting – scrapbook of Jaws minutiae: along with the expected interviews with Benchley, Scheider, Dreyfuss, director Steven Spielberg and producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown, the documentary goes in-depth with artist Roger Kastel (who painted the famous one-sheet image of shark closing in on nude swimmer), late voice-over talent Percy Rodrigues (who lent his low-key menacing tones to the Jaws trailer) and Carl Gottlieb (the co-screenwriter who penned the influential making-of book The Jaws Log).

But there’s more – much more. Still Working also features some solid gold video footage of Spielberg on the morning the Academy Award nominations for 1975 were announced. (“I got beaten out by Fellini!” a crestfallen Spielberg announces, with indignant character actor Joe Spinell at his side for some reason.) Collectors of Jaws props and memorabilia, attendees at a Jaws fan convention and builders of a replica of the original mechanical shark “Bruce” are also interviewed, as are filmmakers Kevin Smith, M. Night Shyamalan, Bryan Singer, Eli Roth and Robert Rodriguez, all citing Jaws as a huge influence. (I’ll leave it to you to decide whether more good than harm has been done.)

At times, The Shark Is Still Working can be a bit repetitive. I lost track of the number of testimonials to the oft-cited accidental brilliance that led to the shark going unseen for the first half of the film (although it’s nice to hear Spielberg admit that Jaws would be a much worse movie if he made it today, given the ready access to CGI effects). But while a few trims here and there wouldn’t hurt, it’s really the ramshackle enthusiasm for tangential matters that makes the documentary such a joy for Jaws fans. My absolute favorite section of the film centers on the residents of Martha’s Vineyard, many of whom participated in the making of Jaws, either behind the scenes or as local color onscreen. I’m not much of a fan convention guy, but I’m very sorry I missed JawsFest 2005 and its screening of the original movie right on shark beach – and I’m especially sorry I didn’t get there before the rotting hull of the Orca was completely dismantled by overzealous fans. Watching The Shark Is Still Working is the next best thing to being there, however, and here’s hoping everyone gets the chance to see it soon.