Forgotten silver

Made in part to celebrate 100 years of cinema, this startling documentary first aired on New Zealand television. When New Zealand film director Peter Jackson stumbles upon an old trunk of nitrate films in a backyard shed, it appears that he has uncovered a lost chapter in New Zealand film history. His discovery leads him to Colin McKenzie, an extraordinary New Zealand born film pioneer and avid inventor from the early 1900s. Jackson’s research reveals that McKenzie was responsible for developing many cinematic innovations including colour film, sync sound and tracking shots that had long been attributed to more famous motion picture pioneers. McKenzie also risked his life to make a silent biblical epic ‘Salome’ in remote bush on the West Coast of the South Island. As Jackson turns up more amazing facts about the McKenzie legacy, it gradually becomes apparent that his documentary is a meticulously staged hoax. The ‘mockumentary’ combines interviews with real people such as actor Sam Neill, film critic Leonard Maltin and Miramax Chairman Harvey Weinstein, with elaborately faked, utterly convincing silent film footage, still photographs and other archival material. Jackson and Botes’ film is a clever, slightly deranged parody of the earnest documentary tributes to the centenary of cinema that were being made at the time. When it first aired on New Zealand television it sparked a minor controversy, enraging viewers who had been duped into believing it was about a real historical subject.