Forgotten Silver (1998)

Forget D.W. Griffith: The true father of modern movies was New Zealand-born director Colin McKenzie, who invented color cinematography and synchronized sound before 1912, but by the 1930s had disappeared, destroyed by budget troubles and personal tragedy. Or so filmmakers Peter Jackson (Heavenly Creatures) and Costa Botes pretend in Forgotten Silver, a mock documentary about the exhumation of McKenzie's lost films from an old woman's garden shed. Leonard Maltin is on hand to acclaim the ''discovery'' with cheerily bland faux-historical remarks, and Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein shows up to sing McKenzie's praises too. It's no satirical touchstone like This Is Spinal Tap, but at less than 60 minutes (it was produced as a New Zealand TV special), it's a silent-era salute concise enough to click instead of cloy.

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