Two musically-minded mates have stepped into the spotlight to share the story and changing fortunes of Van Duren - a musician whose career faded into obscurity.
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Former Dalmeny resident, Greg Carey, teamed up with long-time friend and musician, Wade Jackson, on a journey with an unforeseen destiny.
Carey said it all began with one of Jackson's Twitter followers sharing the music of Van Duren.
"When Wade started playing me this song on YouTube, I just fell in love with it," Carey said.
"It was like that nostalgic 60s, 70s sound, which took me back to mum and dad's record collection, like the Beetles and the Beach Boys.
"We got drunk that night and I said, 'who is this guy? We have to make a doco'."
The new fans managed to get in touch with the mysterious man himself.
"We phoned him up and started to hear his life story and were hooked," Carey said.
They were determined to discover why his music had slipped off the radar. Without any hesitation, they booked flights to America - with a camera but minimal filmmaking experience.
"It was the most random thing; the world was just pulling us towards finding this guy and telling his story," Carey said.
Over the next three years, Carey worked on the documentary whilst juggling a busy job as band manager of The Rubens, Urthboy, Saskwatch and Little May.
That experience as a band manager would work in Duren's favour.
"Halfway through we realised Van Duren didn't (own) his rights to his music," Carey said.
"He hadn't earned a cent off these recordings for 40-years."
The documentary's direction took a turn to fighting for Duren's copyright.
"It took about eight months for Van to regain his copyright; now we're helping him build on his income stream and sell records," Carey said.
"We are so proud to have made something to honour his music legacy."
Born in the 1950s, Van Duren was regarded as a pioneer of a genre later dubbed "power pop".
To the surprise of two kind, passionate Aussie blokes, their documentary, Waiting: the Van Duren Story, has earned standing ovations.
Before its Memphis premiere last year, Carey's voice broke with nerves as he confided: "I just hope people like this film".
"I just had no idea; to have a standing ovation for five minutes and three sold-out screenings of almost 700 people - was pretty overwhelming," he said.
"It was an awesome moment to see people swarm up to him [Duren] afterwards."
Once the world premiere tour is over, Carey hopes to see the documentary hit Netflix or Stan. But first, a special screening at Narooma is a must - and Van Duren will be there too.
"It is important to me to bring this to Narooma, to the community where I grew up. I really want to show Van Duren somewhere away from the big city," he said.
"Until we took him to London, he had never left the US," Carey said.
Waiting: the Van Duren Story is at the Narooma Kinema from 4pm-6.30pm on Saturday, April 6.
