GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Mike Wain 'Forgotten Silver' is a mocumentary made by Peter Jackson that centres around the lost works of legendary fictional film maker 'Colin McKenzie'. As a prank it was executed perfectly, fooling a nation and even resulting in New Zealand's national museum contacting Jackson because they wanted to set aside space for a display of McKenzie's work.Whilst this in itself is a great achievement, the film itself is also very well made. Jackson made this film on a shoestring and his direction of the 'old footage' was impeccable. Particular highlights for me were the shots of the first flight of a plane and the death scene which is 'caught of camera' showing McKenzie following a combatant of the Spanish civil war. The subtle comedy is brilliantly executed and it really is difficult to try and find something wrong with this film. I would highly recommend this film...if you can find it. It is very elusive, but I finally found a second hand Danish import from a man in the south of France...yes it really is that hard to find on region 2 DVD.

Jonas Nilsson This is a wonderfully entertaining "mocku-u-mentary" by Peter Jackson (of LOTR and King Kong fame) and his friend Costa Botes.It is the story of a imaginary New Zeeland filmmaker named Colin McKenzie who, within the content of the movie, predated many of the cinematic history's great achievements.I understand this movie, when it aired on New Zeeland television, caused quite the commotion for being "false-thruth" proving how easily people can be misled by a convincing presentation and a documentary format. Not saying that the new Zealand audience in particular is easily misled, i think any nationality would have been fooled. I have even seen worse examples here in SwedenThough one factual error actually caught my attention, when Colin is filming the first airplane flight they use "digital-enhancement" to check the date on the mans newspaper.In any case it is a highly interesting film featuring many impressing names sharing the hoax and i would recommend it to anyone with a interest in either movies or Peter Jacksons Pre-LOTR career in particular.That sort of digital enhancement would be, to my knowledge, impossible with a film of that age.

tedg Spoilers herein.In 1988, Peter Greenaway made a little film called `Death in the Seine.' Filmmakers have long played with notions of created reality, but this was a clever take: real people drowned in the Seine during a period that by political accidents was erased from the calendar. But we have the reports of the coroner for these anonymous people. By `showing' them, Greenaway was reinvesting their lives with reality. An amazing idea, made sweeter by having the `corpses' obviously be alive.In 1994, film enthusiast Peter Jackson did much the same thing with `Heavenly Creatures.' He took a real story about a famous but now forgotten case and turned it into an essay on constructed film reality. In his case, this involved Orson Welles and an ersatz Camelot named Borovnia (borrow nvia).To judge from that film, he took the matter seriously. To judge from this one, he took it personally. The `creatures' weren't the girls, instead the fictitious beings they animated. The next year he made this film with himself as the animator. In both cases, he plays with the nature of writing. He references Welles, of course, and `Picnic at Hanging Rock,' of course. But most of all he plays under the kiwi skin with all sorts of inside jokes to exploit the national foible.But there's enough for the rest of us, especially if you love movies. He says this is just a joke, and he may even believe it. But there's plenty of intelligent foolery here: just in the `Salome' section. This is a recreation using exclusively modern idioms. This is post- 'Battleship Potemkin' and more obviously post- `Godfather.'It is as if we were given a Shakespeare play that mentioned watergate. The one really big goof is Harvey Weinstein (combined with industry shill Leonard Maltin). They could as easily have been talking about `Lord of the Rings:' huge marvelous cities in New Zealand, stock that steals 2000 eggs, deliberate pies in the face, and even the soap opera about our poor sojourner. Rings or films, it is all magic.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

David A Dein What is truth in film? Is there any? That's a question you ponder after many repeated viewings of Peter Jackson (Heavenly Creatures) and Costa Botes' (Saving Grace) Forgotten Silver, a delightful `Mock-umentary.' I remember the first time I saw this film, it was 1997 at the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I remember the audience laughing, as I have never heard any crowd laugh before. This is a good natured and very funny film.The film follows the story of Colin McKenzie (Thomas Robbins) a pioneer filmmaker from New Zealand. Colin is a genius; he invented brand new emulsion techniques in 1902. He photographed the first human in flight, and it wasn't the Wright Brothers. He invented color and sound for film decades before anyone else, and in the end he mounted one of the greatest epic motion pictures of all time, SALOME: A Tale of the Bible.The movie is amazing. Any lesser film would track down stock footage to tell the story but what Botes and Jackson accomplish with grainy 16mm film and original photography is just amazing. The final 20 minutes of the movie is a painstakingly elaborate silent film that feels like real period silent movie. Colin McKenzie might not exist, but this film makes him alive.The story goes that they showed this film on New Zealand Television and many people bought the joke. There are enough markers to make the utterly impossible. My favorite, the steam powered film camera. But then there are great moments with Sam Neil (Jurassic Park), Leonard Maltin (TV's Hot Ticket), and Harvey Weinstein (An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn), that give this movie and air of credibility. I also enjoyed Beatrice Ashton's wonderful performance as Hannah McKenzie. It's done with all seriousness. There is no tongue-and-cheek in her naturally moving delivery of obviously fake lines.As I mentioned before there is a silent film that takes up the last 20 minutes of FORGOTTEN SILVER. Sarah McLeod (Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of The Ring) plays May Belle, Colin's wife and leading lady, she is perfect. Her role as Salome is so good that you buy it. The camera love's McLeod's face, she has those soft pudgy features that are incredibly feminine, but also vampishly sexy. This film looks so easy, but had to be absolutely painstaking. But I'm glad Jackson and Botes took the time to make it. It's a wonderful film. Imaginative, beautiful, and well worth it's hour and fifteen-minute running time. Don't forget to spend some time with….FORGOTTEN SILVER.