The first time I watched Forgotten Silver, I was going in to year 11. My media teacher at the time played it to us for orientation. I distinctly remember as soon as it finished he said, “It’s all bullshit”. This was the point that I began to think more critically about filmmaking, and specifically documentaries. I’ve hated him since.
Making an event out of “exploiting the gray area between fact and fiction”, as Jones puts it, is common practice in documentary making today. The magical sense of ‘reality’ that shines through adds a dramatic effect that can’t be replicated in strictly fiction narrative.
Watching Forgotten Silver for the second time, I felt all the years of film analysis catch up to me, and couldn’t help but laugh at how foolish I was back then. Perhaps the closed environment in High School with such assurance from a teacher led me to believe what I was seeing to be the truth. It was this excitement of uncovering unknown information that led to the enjoyment I felt the first time watching.
Which begs the question Jones asks: “What does it matter what’s staged and what isn’t?” Peter Jackson is obviously aware of this conundrum and felt compelled to make a humorous ‘documentary’ about a Colin McKenzie. This story of Colin McKenzie, is so playfully absurd that it flirts with the concept of reality. A wise man once said (me): “Blow my mind once, I’m convinced. Blow my mind twice in quick succession, I’m sceptical”. Mastering the technique of mind explosion is what these hybrid filmmakers are all about.
But even if the story of Colin McKenzie were true would it really matter that much to anyone outside of film studies courses? I mean who knows the Lumiere brothers anyway?
Reference Material
- Jones, Kent “I Walk the Line” Film Comment, vol. 41:1, January-February 2005
– Gabriel