Forgotten Silver Movie Review

Peter Jackson's Forgotten Silver may be an eyelash too clever for its own good. It looks like a documentary of a forgotten New Zealand filmmaking pioneer named Colin McKenzie, but it's essentially a reconstruction of silent movie history if an obscure bloke, rather than D.W. Griffith, had been responsible for early cinematic innovations. (If you've ever seen The Missing Reel, a film by Christopher Rawlence about an authentic forgotten filmmaking pioneer, you're aware that stranger things have been known to happen.) Still, Forgotten Silver is obviously an affectionate look at a vanished era, and Jackson, Sam Neill, Leonard Maltin, et al obviously had a ball making it.

1996 53m/C NZ Sam Neill, Leonard Maltin, Harvey Weinstein, John O'Shea, Hannah McKenzie, Lindsay Shelton, Johnny Morris, Marguerite Hurst, Costa Botes, Jeffrey Thomas; D: Peter Jackson, Robert Sarkies, Costa Botes; W: Peter Jackson, Costa Botes; C: Alun Bollinger. VHS