A year and a half of intrigue for a Hawke's Bay filmmaker will come to fruition in Hastings tonight with a world premiere of his latest production which will be shown as far away as Norway during the next three months.
The work of 27-year-old Josh Neilson, of Twyford, the 45-minute documentary explores extreme sports psychology, based on a thesis by Australian researcher Eric Brymer and following some of the world's most talented extreme athletes, including world record-breaking Hawke's Bay free-diver William Trubridge.
The others are world champion downhill mountainbike champion Vanessa Quinn, of Tauranga, Christchurch-based expedition kayaker Mike Abbott, and Norwegian base-jumper and wingsuit flyer Jokke Sommer.
Neilson filmed Trubridge in action in the Bahamas, and Sommer in Norway, as well as interviewing Dr Brymer in Queensland.
As a result, Brisbane and Colorado next month and Norwegian winter capital Voss in June are among venues for showing the film, which is the sixth stemming from Neilson's enjoyment of the outdoors, his love of kayaking, and support of charitable causes.
He's made a point of letting Hawke's Bay see them before the rest of the world, the first premiering "down the road" in the Twyford Hall in 2007.
The Century Theatre in Napier has also been used, but it is out of action during the Napier's Hawke's Bay Museum and Art Gallery redevelopment, so the Hastings City Art Gallery has been chosen for tonight's showing starting at 7. .
The Karamu High School old boy said last night he had been working on a project exploring some of the psychology behind the extreme sports experience when he came across Dr Brymer's work and began to read his thesis.
"His findings were so interesting that I decided to approach him about turning some of his work into a documentary," he said.