In 1980, Brett Whiteley completed his famous portrait of Patrick White, Patrick White at Centennial Park 1979–1980, disagreements over which caused a terminal rupture in the friendship between the two men. Of his intentions for the painting Whiteley said, ‘Could I make a vision of the feeling of his literature plus how he lived, and the complexity of him as a person, his humour, his bitchiness, his pronouncements?’

Director James Bogle is, in many ways, asking that same question of Whiteley himself and his art with this fast-paced alluring patchwork of a documentary. Indeed, like the White portrait, some artistic licence, along with techniques of collage and even fantasy, combine to produce a fascinating glimpse of a brilliant artist whose work and life retain a special place in Australia’s cultural consciousness.