Frank Zappa’s archival vaults are being turned over to Alex Winter (“Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” “Deep Web”) for a new documentary, the first authorized by the Zappa Family Trust. Winter is turning to Kickstarter to fund making the movie, but also to catalog and preserve Zappa’s archives which still remains in the artist's Hollywood Hills home in Los Angeles.

“I went down in that basement and had a minor heart attack,” Winter says. “It was combined elation and horror. Priority one is going to be getting it persevered,...