Forgotten Silver (1995) (TV)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Directors:

Costa Botes
Peter Jackson

Writers:

Costa Botes (written by) &
Peter Jackson (written by)

Release Date:

3 October 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Forgotten Silver is a mockumentary which details the prodigious life of "lost" filmmaker Colin McKenzie...

Plot Keywords:

New Zealand | Mockumentary | Mock Documentary | Spanish Civil War | Photograph

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Peter Jackson	...	Himself
Johnny Morris	...	Himself - Film Archivist (also as Jonathon Morris)
Costa Botes	...	Himself - Film Maker
Harvey Weinstein	...	Himself - Miramax Films
Leonard Maltin	...	Himself - Film Historian
Sam Neill	...	Himself - Actor / Director
Marguerite Hurst
John O'Shea
Lindsay Shelton	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Beatrice Ashton	...	Hannah McKenzie
Peter Corrigan	...	Stan the Man
Sarah McLeod	...	May Belle (research assistant)
Thomas Robins	...	Colin McKenzie
Jeffrey Thomas	...	Narrator
Davina Whitehouse	...	Herself

Runtime:

53 min | USA:70 min (DVD)

Country:

New Zealand

Language:

English | Cantonese

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Certification:

Finland:K-7 | France:U | Iceland:Unrated | Singapore:NC-16

Filming Locations:

New Zealand

Company:

New Zealand Film Commission

Trivia:

According to the DVD commentary by Costa Botes, one shot from 'Salome' showing dozens of extras fighting on the palace steps swallowed almost half of the film's overall budget, even though digital compositing was used to make it seem like the size of the set and number of extras were much greater.

Goofs:

Continuity: Also relating to the close-up: there are many in the footage from "The Worrior Season" which was made before "Solome" where Colin supposedly invents it.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Behind the Bull: Forgotten Silver (2000) (V)

Best kept secret

I vividly remember the first time I watched this movie. The lead up to the finding of the old films was without any obvious clues, so it wasn't 'til the Richard Pearse footage that we became seriously suspicious. My husband is a forensic photographer so the digital imaging to get the date off the newspaper was a dead giveaway to us. The eleventy seven dozen eggs was another big pointer. From then on we treated the whole thing as a lark and just revelled in the imagination that is Peter Jackson's trade mark.

We were of course, greatly impressed with the enormity of the project and could only surmise that the actors in the "Salome" movie were also conned into thinking they were filming a real movie and didn't know the truth until the 'doco' came out. Either that or Peter Jackson has a loyal entourage that kept a secret which could never have survived in any Hollywood arena.

I look forward to even more of Peters work.....