Ask to use material, get more information or tell us about an item
A spoof documentary made for television about New Zealand film pioneer Colin McKenzie.
Peter Jackson tells the tale of visiting family friend, Hannah McKenzie, in his home town of Pukerua Bay. In Hannah’s shed sits a trunk of old film; “My pulse quickened. That told me that, whatever these were, they were not home movies”, recalls Jackson. Jackson took these precious nitrate films to Jonathan Morris at The Film Archive for preservation. What was revealed was an extraordinary collection of shorts, features, experimental, newsreels - “you name it, McKenzie did it.”
Leonard Maltin and Harvey Weinstein agree, this discovery puts McKenzie up there among the pantheon. “He really deserves a place among the luminaries of cinema”.
The drama proceeds with more startling discoveries. Colin McKenzie built his own steam-powered camera; filmed Richard Pearse’s first flight and made New Zealand’s first feature film Salome, high above the Lewis Pass in a hand-built city.
Morris, Botes and Jackson set out to find that city and the lost footage of Salome, buried by McKenzie after the death of his beloved lead actress. They succeed and pass the incomplete feature on to Pacific Film’s John O’Shea, who finishes the film in the style he thinks McKenzie would have wanted.
The NZ Film Commission’s Lindsay Shelton introduces the premiere of Salome to a packed Embassy theatre.
“This film documents the extraordinary life of Colin McKenzie, pioneer NZ filmmaker. It also follows the equally fascinating contemporary story of how the work of this forgotten genius was brought to light.
“Festival/Awards: 1996 - Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Hofer Filmtage, London BFI Film Festival, Los Angeles International Film Festival.” - New Zealand Film Commission; www.nzfilm.co.nz/film/forgotten-silver; 13/03/2014.