Award-winning doco director here for single screening

New Zealand painter Frances Hodgkins is the subject of a documentary film showing at the Dome Cinema on Sunday. Picture supplied

Director Blandine Massiet du Biest will be in Gisborne on Sunday for the one-off screening of her debut feature film exploring the life and art of celebrated New Zealand painter Frances Hodgkins.

Massiet du Biest was the winner of Best New Zealand Emerging Filmmaker at the DocEdge film festival in 2023 for her documentary Frances Hodgkins, Anything but a Still Life.

She will attend the screening at The Dome Cinema on Sunday and be available to answer questions afterwards.

Spending much of her life and career in Europe, Hodgkins was a modernist painter whose work continues to inspire contemporary New Zealand artists.

The film retraces Hodgkins’ footsteps, taking viewers to the places she lived and worked, and shedding light on the challenges she faced and her unwavering commitment to her craft.

It features  insights from experts like Mary Kisler, Linda Tyler, Joanne Drayton and Jonathan Gooderham, as well as creatives such as Kate Sylvester and Star Gossage. The film celebrates Hodgkins’ courage and determination as a pioneering woman in the arts, and her enduring legacy as a role model for women everywhere.

Frances Hodgkins is arguably New Zealand’s leading expatriate artist. Her works capture the spirit of an era greatly influenced by impressionism and the beginnings of en plein air painting, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism and two world wars. With a professional life that spanned 56 years, Hodgkins was one of the foremost artists of her generation.

During her time in Britain she became one of the leaders of the English avant-garde movement. She travelled extensively and evolved her style from impressionistic watercolours to striking 20th century modernist paintings.

■ Frances Hodgkins, Anything but a Still Life,  Sunday 6.30pm Dome Cinema