Synopsis
This is a film documenting the extraordinry life of Colin McKenzie, the pioneer New Zealand filmmaker. Although it follows the fascinating story of how the work of this forgotten genius was brought to life, the docrmentation is in fact entirely fictional-a mockumentary. Presented as factual, Forgotten Silver reveals some remarkable discoveries, such as Mekenzie's development of the first color film or how as a boy of only 13years old, he films New Zealand aviator Richard Pearse achieving fligft, six months before the Wright brothers did so. Forgotten Silver opens with director Peter Jackson introducing the place where he says he has discovered an extraodinary collection of archival film produced by the legendary Colin Mekenzie. The film folliws Jackson and co-director Botes as they trek into the busy in search of a lost city built by McKenzie as a set for his Biblical epic. It is at this location that they make the most fascinating discovery of all-the untouched footage for McKenzie's epic four-hour feature film Salome. A decision is made to complete Salome, and after months of painstaking editing and restoration, Slaome is premiered to a standing ovation. Supported by fascinating archive footage and stills, not only is Forgotten Silver riveting drama, combining tragedy, comedy, and romance, it is also a story that audiences truly wish to comedy, and romance, it is also a story that audiences truly wish to believe. (Na Ho-Won)