It wasn’t Jarvis Rockwell’s last name that attracted Rachel Victor when the Lexington filmmaker visited Rockwell’s exhibit at MASS MoCA in 2001. It was “Maya V,’’ a whimsical wooden pyramid covered with plastic figurines. The structure intrigued Victor, and when she learned that its creator was the son of famed illustrator Norman Rockwell, she wanted to know more.

“I read the card and it said Jarvis (right) was 71,’’ Victor says. “And I thought, ‘What’s a 71-year-old man doing with so many action figures?’ ’’

She eventually found out and made a 40-minute documentary, “Jarvis Rockwell,’’ that will be screened at the Newburyport Documentary Film Festival, which kicks off Friday. Edited by Loren S. Miller, the documentary traces Rockwell’s artistic journey, his family life, and his obsession with collecting action figures.

As a child, Rockwell posed for many of his father’s paintings and the film explores the often tense relationship between the two artists.

“It was clear that his father was a great influence in his life,’’ Victor says. “But he had 71 years under his belt at that point and wasn’t as focused as he may have been in the past on his relationship with his father and his mother.’’

Rockwell has spent much of his life in the Berkshires, where his famous father lived. Today, he resides with his wife in North Adams. Victor, who spent 10 years making “Jarvis Rockwell,’’ said she could never get the artist to explain the meaning of his art.

“If you ask him what it is,’’ Victor said, “he says, ‘It’s art. It’s whatever you think it is.’ ’’

Newburyport Documentary Film Festival, now in its 11th year, will be held in two downtown theaters: the Firehouse Center for the Arts and the Screening Room. Other selected documentaries range from a 10-minute film about a London newspaper salesman to a feature-length look at former prisoners’ lives in Lawrence and Lowell. For more information, visit www.newburyportfilm festival.org.