Matt Austin Sadowski, director of the John Hughes documentary Don't You Forget About Me, examined the legacy of his film hero. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

Documentary filmmaker Matt Austin Sadowski said he made his film Don't You Forget About Me to try and get at the heart of why one of his favourite filmmakers, John Hughes, faded from the public eye.

Working on a shoestring budget, the Toronto-based filmmaker conducted interviews with Hughes protégés Ally Sheedy, Andrew McCarthy, Mia Sara, Alan Ruck, Gedde Watanabe and other actors over a period of three years.

But Sadowski's project gained currency when Hughes, the American film director behind The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, died in August.

His documentary becomes available on DVD on Tuesday, amid renewed interest in Hughes's teen canon. The title of the film is taken from the song Don't You (Forget About Me), which was written for the soundtrack of The Breakfast Club by Simple Minds, who were also interviewed for the documentary.

"These are [films] that have resulted in conversations and really have not only [put] a mark on pop culture but really have [put] a mark on people's adolescence," Sadowski said.

He framed the documentary as a road trip in which he and a camera crew pile into a van to meet the young actors who starred in films such as Weird Science, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club.

They also interview famous Hughes admirers such as Clerks director Kevin Smith and Juno director Jason Reitman.

"There's a void that you left, whether you like it or not," says former teen actor Justin Henry, the little brother from Sixteen Candles, referring to the fact that Hughes stopped making movies in the 1990s.

The documentary was not made as a eulogy for Hughes, who died after the film was already complete, but as a tribute to his impact as a filmmaker, Sadowski said.

"His movies were really big to so many people," he said.

With files from The Canadian Press