Forgotten Silver

1995

New Zealand

Wingnut Films.

Various Releases including Anchor Bay & First Run Pictures

Written and Directed by Peter Jackson, Costa Botes

Widescreen, enhanced for 16:9

Reviewer: Bob Estreich

In the last issue we looked at New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson and his film history. One film mentioned , but which I haven’t seen until now, was a made-for-TV documentary called Forgotten Silver. The DVD is a little difficult to find, but it is still available and a copy has now turned up.

Forgotten Silver is the story of pioneer New Zealand filmmaker Colin McKenzie in the early 1900s. The story was written by Peter Jackson and fellow NZ director Costa Botes, but was put on hold for some years while Jackson’s other film project (Bad Taste) got under way. It finally went into production after NZTV and the New Zealand Film Board offered to fund a range of TV specials of about one hour in length. Forgotten Silver was accepted.

Colin McKenzie’s story is both heroic and tragic. Rare surviving footage discovered in a trunk in his widow’s garden shed shows his early bicycle powered camera and his later steam powered model. It also shows his successful attempt at making the world’s first colour film. A brief clip using a chemical from a rare Hawaiian shrub was used, and the short 1911 clip made for promotion of colour featured topless Hawaiian ladies swimming. When he showed it in New Zealand it was enough for him and his brother to be found guilty of publishing a lewd document and getting six months in jail. It was fortunate that he had the camera and film technology refined, as he was able to film New Zealand’s first powered flight. This took place nine months before the Wright Brothers flew. Unfortunately he also caused New Zealand’s first plane crash as the aircraft swerved to miss his film crew, hit a hedge and disintegrated.

Colin and his brother moved on to grand things, with plans to make a feature film on the story of Salome, from the Bible. His brother starred in the film, but there was a complication. Both Colin and his brother fell in love with the leading lady. With the outbreak of the first World War, Colin’s brother enlisted and was killed in the abortive Gallipoli landing. Colin, deeply depressed, disappeared into the wild country of New Zealand’s Southland for three years.

When he returned to civilization it was to announce that filming of Salome would recommence in a new elaborate city-set that he had built in a remote mountain valley. The film was plagued by shortage of funds and filming was regularly interrupted while Colin contracted out to a local comedian, Stan Wilson, to film his “Stan The Man” silent movie acts. This source of funding finished when Stan smacked the New Zealand Premier in the face with a custard pie and was savagely beaten by the police (all the while, Colin kept on filming with a concealed camera).

He also fell in love with his leading lady again, and as filming neared its conclusion it was found that she was pregnant to him. Short of funds once again, Colin turned to a U.S. investor who liked the Biblical style of Salome. The advance kept the film going almost until the final scene, but tragedy struck again. Unable to keep up with the frantic pace of filming, Colin’s wife and unborn child died in childbirth. Then the stock market crash came, and his U.S. investor lost his fortune. Colin, desperate for funds to finish the film, secured money from the new Russian Communist government through the New Zealand Communist Party. He had to refilm the story to leave out all mention of religion and convert it to a tale of evil capitalism being thwarted by a young “working girl”.

In the U.S., his previous investor’s assets had been taken over by the Palermo Brothers, a notorious syndicate who now wanted all the film handed over to them. The Russians were also pressing for the film to be handed over to them. Colin did the only thing he could do – he buried the film and left New Zealand, never to return.

He next appeared as a news cameraman in the Spanish Civil War, where he met and married a young New Zealand nurse. Hannah McKenzie, when she returned to NZ, kept all Colin’s film in the old trunk from where it was reclaimed sixty years later by Peter Jackson. Just before the documentary was released, a single reel of film from a Spanish archive turned up, showing Colin at the front of one of the war’s most savage battles. He puts his camera down to go out under fire to help an injured soldier to safety, and is killed by machinegun fire.

The film of his epic “Salome” was only recovered after Peter Jackson, Costa Botes and a group of intrepid explorers managed to retrace McKenzie’s path to his lost city in the remote forest. Through the N Z Film Commission, they set about restoring and editing the film so it could finally be released. Colin McKenzie was hailed as an unsung New Zealand hero of pioneer cinematography.

The whole show was a spoof. Colin McKenzie never existed, and the entire “history” was concocted and filmed by Botes and Jackson. There are plenty of clues in the show, such as McKenzie’s invention of 35mm film (actually invented in 1892 by Thomas Edison and William Dickson) and the remarkably sharp and clear “enhancement” of a frame showing a dated newspaper in a workman’s pocket during the first flight. The cast of the film proved to be very diligent at keeping the true nature of the film secret until its release. In spite of this, thousands of people gathered for a Film Festival opening took part in six minutes of footage which was later purported to be the launch of Colin’s McKenzie’s “Salome”. The documentary’s credibility was aided and abetted by comments in the film by cooperative NZ actor Sam Neill, by Harvey Wallstein of Miramax Films, and by film historian Leonard Maltin. With people of this caliber supporting it, the film had to be genuine, didn’t it? Or did it? As the PR stills were released showing “the making of”, the euphoria changed. Sometimes the reaction was savage, with callers to the TV station urging that those responsible should be shot. Others complained that they could never trust a documentary film again. The film faded into obscurity, and Jackson went on to make other films.

The DVD has a good range of extras. The (true this time, I think) documentary “Behind The Bull” details the making of the film. Jackson said “…it was really low budget and it was made with a spirit of low budget film making that I don’t get to do very often these days…” There is one more Colin McKenzie surprise hidden in the deleted scenes, but I won’t spoil it for you. The film’s recreation of early silent movie footage is brilliant. As a rare example of a mockumentary that really worked, this DVD is well worth tracking down.

This review will appear in Volume 2 No.2 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

If you came to this page directly (and missed our menu), click here to go to the Synergy Magazine front page. (http://www.synergy-magazine.com)