Simon Kerr
The Roads to Redemption
A powerful exhibition about artist and former Northland Region Correctional Facility inmate Simon Kerr.
The Roads to Redemption is a dramatic biopic style documentary, taking the audience on a journey through one man’s life, from a difficult childhood, family, his criminal life, incarceration, escape, activism, and ultimate rehabilitation and redemption through the love of his partner and small children and his art.
Simon Kerr
Simon was born April 29, 1961
An intensely creative child, Simon was always brimming with imaginative ideas but he struggled at school – both academically and with the constraints of rules. He finally came into contact with the criminal justice system in his mid-teens, having served his criminal apprenticeship as a ‘stair dancer’ – stealing mainly briefcases from commercial buildings.
Simon was sent to Mt Eden Prison at 16 and that’s where his real criminal education began – along with learning to survive These early prison years very much moulded the man he would become – clever but under-educated; compassionate but hardened; emotional and loving but irresponsible – a survivor.
Throughout the many years Simon has been imprisoned during his adult life, he has continued to write manuscripts, some of which have been optioned by significant director Ian Mulne. In the last few years Simon has concentrated on his painting – a skill that he continues to build on and that is winning him broad recognition and acclaim.