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Review

New Zealand, it seems, has some issues with its self-image. After being dumped by Britain following World War II, the country was forced to develop its own societal identity. Director Jackson, a leading force in Kiwi cinema, has used this cultural blank slate as an opportunity to manufacture his own film history. With the pretense of a newly discovered trunk of rapidly disintegrating films, Jackson and cowriter/director Botes invent, with Forgotten Silver, a "nearly forgotten" chapter in Kiwi film history. Their discovery, director Colin McKenzie (Botes), is ostensibly the most important film innovator in New Zealand history, having used a rare Polynesian berry to create the first reel of color film (and land himself in jail for smut-peddling), and designing the world's first steam-powered film projector. Suffering slightly from the Forrest Gump-ism of McKenzie's responsibility for every major advance in film history, the film is an ingeniously convincing, deeply humorous and richly woven fabrication. When this "mockumentary" was first presented on New Zealand television, it erroneously provided a new source of Kiwi cultural pride, prompting the network to issue an apology and explanation.