When record-setting Australian Olympic sprinter Peter Norman took to the dais in 1968 to collect his medal, his life changed forever. His nephew, filmmaker Matt Norman, now captures that moment and its ramifications in his compelling documentary Salute.

"He's the skinny white guy in the photograph." The infamous, now truly iconic shot was taken during the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico. The white guy was Peter Norman, five-time Australian champion sprinter, holder of the Australian 200 metre record and, for one fleeting hour, the world record.

No, you haven't stumbled into a mislaid article from Sprinter's Monthly. Peter Norman is the subject of a documentary charting that fateful day in 1968, and the consequences that would hound him for the rest of his life. Largely forgotten except by those who knew Peter well, his filmmaking nephew Matt Norman felt that it was time to set the record straight. In short, it was time to give that skinny white guy a name.

For those unfamiliar with the photo, Norman won a silver medal for the men's 200 metre sprint at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. Worldwide, social activism was reaching a crescendo - it was the year that Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated; Mexican authorities massacred hundreds of students; Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their families, and the Australian government maintained a White Australia policy. Flanked by black sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Norman mounted the dais wearing a badge in support of the Olympic Project For Human Rights. What he didn't know was that Smith and Carlos would - with fists raised as the US national anthem faded out in a hushed arena - join in a civil rights salute. One snapshot later, and history was made for the second time that day.

Outraged authorities reprimanded the athletes. Smith and Carlos were sent home, and were suspended by the US Olympic Committee. They later received several death threats. For his part, Norman was reprimanded by the AOC, and was ostracised by the Australian media, who felt that he had shamed his country.

Although he qualified eighteen times to join Australia's team for the Munich Olympics four years later, Norman wasn't selected. In fact, he would never represent his country again. To this day, the record that he set for the men's 200 metre sprint in Mexico still stands - no Australian athlete has beaten it. Yet when the metaphorical sporting hall of fame was plundered for icons to open the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Peter Norman was not among them. He was not invited to be a torch-bearer alongside sporting luminaries like Raelene Boyle, a household name who, ironically, won silver for the women's 200 metre sprint in Mexico.

From childhood, Matt Norman recalls that his uncle always steered them along a compassionate path. "I grew up in a hard, hard Victorian country town. We lived opposite an aboriginal commune, and I was always fighting with aboriginal kids. I wouldn't say that I was a racist, but as a child I had fear of anyone who was different from me. But Peter ran that barrier down quickly - he'd say that we've all got our own insights, and our own disappointments. He'd tell me that if you cut a man open - black or white - you'd find the same thing. We're all the same."

Some years later, perhaps empowered by his uncle's perspective, the aspiring filmmaker embarked on a research project that took him to the US for a reunion of the competitors from the 1968 Olympics. Peter Norman went along for the ride. Although he'd been forgotten at home, his actions had earned him a tender place in the hearts of US civil rights campaigners and many fellow athletes.

Salute documents a man who was more than the white guy in the photo. "For the last 37 years, no one knew who Peter was. They didn't know that he stood up for human rights, and that he wore the badge on the dais." Norman devoted his life to his family and sport. He worked for The Victorian Department Of Sports And Athletics. He kept in touch with Tommie Smith and John Carlos, and would do speaking tours in the US. He remained a quietly outspoken supporter of human rights until his death from a heart attack in 2006.

Forty years on, and the rhythm of the world is beating to the same tune. "Exactly forty years later, there's an Olympic Games being held in a country with one of the worst human rights records in the world," starts Matt Norman. "In 1968, Mexican students were slaughtered by gun ships for protesting in their own country, and now Tibetans are being killed for protesting in theirs."

Perhaps learning a bitter lesson from Norman's experiences, Australian voices are deafening by their absence in Salute. "Peter had a lot of great friends - people like Raelene Boyle - but they didn't want to talk. They have careers in the media, and I think the last thing that they wanted to do, especially now with Tibet and China, was to put anyone out of place. And all that tells me, despite what Peter achieved, is that we've learned nothing."

Until his death at age 64, Norman was proud to have been a part of civil rights history. "Although he always said that it wasn't just for civil rights, but for human rights - for people who can't stand up for themselves."

Salute is released on July 17.