Here are three posts from H-FILM on Peter Jackson's documentary. -Pip Chodorov <[log in to unmask]> ____________________________________________________ Subj: Historical film discovery Date: Dim 29 Oct 1995 7:33 EDT From: [log in to unmask] X-From: [log in to unmask] (Steven Mintz, U. Houston) Sender: [log in to unmask] (H-NET List for Scholarly Studies and Uses of Media) Reply-to: [log in to unmask] (H-NET List for Scholarly Studies and Uses of Media) To: [log in to unmask] (Multiple recipients of list H-FILM) From: IN%"[log in to unmask]" 29-OCT-1995 05:05:48.38 This note is written late on the night of 29 October and our family - enthusiastic film readers and watchers is still stunned, so if my tale is confused, forgive me. We have just watched a documentary on national television made and hosted by Peter Jackson (Heavenly Creatures, Braindead, Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles) which was screened with little or no pre-screening hype, about Colin McKenzie. Did any LIST readers know of this New Zealander? We didn't and small-town-like, we thought we had at least an awareness of the country's part in film history. But apparently not. Colin McKenzie was a film maker. He started making films in 1900, as a 12 year old. He used bicycle parts to crank the camera, and the family farm tractor to steam drive the projector. He experimented then used egg albumin and boiled flax to make his own film stock - and made his father so mad by stealing 2000 eggs (it was there in the newspaper) that all his equipment was smashed - except his camera, hidden by his mother. Do you believe me? There's more, as you script writers say. He shot footage of a pre-Wright brothers flight, proving at last a NZers legend. He invented a synch-sound recorder. He used a Tahitian plant material to make coloured film stock. He built an enormous set in the back country to film a version of Salome - during 1915 - 1920 amid amazing tales of huge financial deals, international espionage that is too complicated to detail here. The first close up. There was a lot more - Leonard Maltin narrated a lot of the historical material and Sam Neill appeared too. I am, as I said quite bewildered that all this has been discovered in our own backyard, and in such amazing detail. Here in New Zealand we are all saying,"Has anyone heard of Colin McKenzie?" By the way he also filmed his own death - but perhaps I should take a leaf out of Jackson's book and leave you to see that for yourselves in the doco which is called "Forgotten Silver". But please lets know your reaction. You heard it here first... __________ Subj: Discovery a hoax Date: Dim 29 Oct 1995 18:05 EDT From: [log in to unmask] X-From: [log in to unmask] (Steven Mintz, U. Houston) Sender: [log in to unmask] (H-NET List for Scholarly Studies and Uses of Media) Reply-to: [log in to unmask] (H-NET List for Scholarly Studies and Uses of Media) To: [log in to unmask] (Multiple recipients of list H-FILM) From: IN%"[log in to unmask]" 29-OCT-1995 14:30:13.83 I am SO red-faced. Peter Jackson bewildered me, offered me something I WANTED to believe - and I fell right in! "Forgotten Silver" it appears is in fact another of Jackson's fantasies and the creation of his wicked imagination, his circle of friends ( Maltin, Weinstein, Neill), and his super-powerful computers. The film watchers of New Zealand have got something to talk about for a long time. When I get over my embarrassment - I will not speak out on the List for a long while, now! I still say this was a great piece of film, tricky or no. _________ Subj: Film and Hoax Date: Lun 30 Oct 1995 10:27 EDT From: [log in to unmask] X-From: [log in to unmask] (Steven Mintz, U. Houston) Sender: [log in to unmask] (H-NET List for Scholarly Studies and Uses of Media) Reply-to: [log in to unmask] (H-NET List for Scholarly Studies and Uses of Media) To: [log in to unmask] (Multiple recipients of list H-FILM) From: IN%"[log in to unmask]" 30-OCT-1995 07:22:15.20 Re: Film and Hoax Don't be embarrassed. Film is and is about hoax: seeing what's not there; seeing whole what is really bits and pieces; seeing a past that never existed. Your experience in New Zealand fits in quite well with the recent thread on film and history--the answer to which is "as if!" Film is only about itself, its form and structure, and what those say about the state of the culture at the moment of their reception. Robert Kolker ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]