A documentary with Napier connections, showing at the New Zealand International Film Festival tonight, details the life and works of one of New Zealand's most "underrated" artists.
Sculptor and collage artist Don Driver and the documentary's director Paul Judge attended high school in Hawke's Bay, but it was not until both ended up in New Plymouth, that their paths crossed.
"He was originally born in Hastings and lived in Napier until he was 14, I'm a Napier person, I went to Colenso College for most of my formative years," Mr Judge said.
"The origin of the story is that I became aware of his work thanks to an art teacher at New Plymouth School, were I spent half a year; [Driver] was an important artist working in the pop medium at the time."
Touted as the country's foremost assemblage sculptor and collage artist, Mr Driver drew on the visual richness of his rural "gothic" environment, while incorporating sophistication of modernist movements in international art.