Conversation XI

Some of my readers might remember an article I wrote last year that mentioned Life Burns High – a documentary about Australian author Charmian Clift. I’m delighted to let you know that filmmaker Rachel Lane, who spent 10 long years creating the film, spoke to me recently about the challenges of bringing the film to fruition and why Charmian’s work matters now more than ever.

If you haven’t seen the film and are interested in the story of Charmian’s life, you can catch it on Foxtel and Binge in Australia.

For those of you outside Australia, you may be interested in the Nadia Wheatley biography of Charmian Clift, on which the film is based.

There are some other reading recommendations for people who’d like to explore the work of Charmian Clift in this article I wrote a while ago. Since I wrote that (very fan girlish) piece in 2022, Clift’s unfinished novel The End of the Morning has been published and that’s definitely worth a read too. The End of the Morning chronicles Clift’s childhood and it broke my heart to read such a short, polished piece of writing that was potentially Clift’s most significant work but was sadly never to be finished.

Rachel Lane explores Charmian’s life and death in the film, making a beautiful tribute to this accomplished yet unfulfilled writer. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Rachel and that it might inspire you to dive deeper into the world of Charmian Clift.

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Hi Rachel, it was so nice to meet you at the screening of Life Burns High – your film about the life of Charmian Clift, based on Nadia Wheatley’s biography of the author. I’m trying to turn everyone I know into Charmian Clift fans because I love her work so much. How did you discover Charmian?

I read the biography first, about 20 odd years ago. And, at the time when I read it, I thought that I needed to make a film about Charmian. At first, I tried to make it as a drama but couldn’t get any traction so then I thought ‘Oh maybe if I make it as a documentary… that might be easier…’ – if only!

I read all the novels and then, once I’d committed to making the documentary, I read all the essays because I wanted the essays to form the spine of the narrative. My absolute favourite of her novels is Peel Me a Lotus, when Charmian and her husband George and their children are living in Greece. To me, it’s the most honest and authentic example of her work.

I loved listening to Charmian’s voice in the film. You must have done an enormous amount of research to track down all the archival footage, recordings and photos. What was your favourite find?

At the start of the film there’s a quote from Charmian when she’s talking to the historian Hazel de Berg. I love that quote and I think it sums up why I appreciate Charmian so much:

But my ambitions as I said were very large. And I wanted to get out into the big bad world and do – I didn’t know what I wanted to do. But like most kids with any sort of creative ability, I wanted it to be big, I wanted it to be enormous, I wanted to see the world, I wanted to do something, I didn’t know what, better than anyone else could do.

I will be forever indebted to my archive producer, Jenny Fulton, for the material that she found. We worked with about 14 different archive agencies, like the ABC, the National Library of Australia, the State Library of NSW and the State Library of Victoria.

One of the problems we face is that our funding didn’t extend to the purchase of all of the licenses for worldwide perpetuity. Instead, we have five-year licenses with some of the agencies. So that’s why you can watch the film on Foxtel and Binge for the next three years. We are hoping to raise approximately AUD $50,000 to allow full exploitation of the film in worldwide, all media, in perpetuity.

It would be ideal for this film to exist forever so people will always be able to watch it and listen to Charmian’s voice because it’s just so powerful.

From your talk at the screening, I understand that it was incredibly challenging to raise the money to make the film about Charmian. Can
you tell us a little bit about that process ?

It took me 10 years to make the film. During that time, I was working in the film and television industries, mostly in a freelance capacity, and I was raising my son as an independent parent. To finish the film required the investment of my own money which I was prepared to do to get it over the line.

I recently met with some young documentary writers and they asked me how they could know when to throw in the towel, when they would have tried everything. And I told them that I can’t advise on that because it comes down to your own creative spirit and what you’re willing to sacrifice to keep going.

I believed Charmian’s story needed to be told so I just kept going.

I couldn’t have hoped for a better result with the release of the film last year. To premiere at the Sydney Film Festival was an enormous honour and we sold out each of our one-off screenings. Obviously, we’re delighted that people can stream the film on Foxtel and Binge.

I know you’re a fan of Wifedom (it’s one of my favourite books) and the way that it brings Eileen Blair, George Orwell’s wife, into the spotlight.

In the film, you suggest that Charmian contributed substantially to her husband George Johnston’s work, including in his most famous work, My Brother Jack. I really admire the way you went through the work and identified her writing. What were you hoping to show?

Well, I wanted to illustrate the point that Charmian was the burnisher. She was making sure that his work was creatively polished.

And I guess I was trying to make that point that behind every male artist, there's always the female artist, or the voice that's helping prop them up, whether or not they come to the forefront and get credited for that. But usually, they don’t receive credit and Charmian certainly didn’t in regards to My Brother Jack.

And then lo and behold, that book catapulted him onto the stage and, as we said in the film, it was almost like she got left behind. But she was so resilient, she bungee jumped again and then she found herself writing those amazing essays for the Sydney Morning Herald. So, she found her niche but, maybe in her mind, she wasn't where she wanted to be.

As she was writing the column for the Sydney Morning Herald, she was basically the main breadwinner, especially later in her life when George was in hospital for so long. And she had to come up with a new essay topic every week. So, when was she going to have time for her own creative work?

Obviously writing the column was a good earner for her, but by the same token, she was dealing with George's failing health and everything for the kids and I think it all just got too much.

And you know, back in those days, it just wasn't the help that you could potentially get today if you were struggling a little bit under life pressures.

And financially, if you didn't have any money, you certainly couldn't get that help. It wasn't like they were very well off. But then they were, you know, these artists and they were almost celebrities, it must have been a very strange position. They were held in very high regard in their circle, as Tom Keneally said in the film.

Do you think that her work will get more recognition? And was that one of the things that motivated you to make the film?

When I was seeking funding, people would ask ‘Why now? Why do we need this person’s story told now?’

And the reason is that it’s still relevant. We're still talking about issues that Charmian was writing about back in the 60s, including feminism and First Nations rights. She was completely ahead of her time.

I'm always amazed that in the 10 years that I've been making this film, and even more so in the last five years, there's always an article about Charmian in either the Good Weekend or The Spectrum or another publication. People still talk about Charmian, while interestingly they don't talk about George as much. But they do talk about Charmian.

So, for some reason the interest in her lives on. Polly Sampson’s book, A Theatre for Dreamers, is a great recent example of another person who’s become obsessed with Charmian.

It’s like we’re all Clifties, instead of Swifties!

I love that so much. I’ll be proud to call myself both a Cliftie and a Swiftie! So, what’s next for Rachel Lane?

I’m pleased to say that making Life Burns High has opened some doors for me. I’m now working on a fully funded, private production that’s a brilliant next step for me. It is a film about the production designer Ron Cobb, who was a pioneer in his field on films such as Aliens and Back to the Future. It’s a very exciting project to be working on.

You can watch my 30-minute documentary called Alofa on ABC’s Compass program on iView. Andre Afamasaga is a former pastor who grew up in a tight knit Christian Samoan family. He survived years of conversion therapy and has now reconciled his faith, culture and sexuality. That film is up for ‘Best Short Documentary’ at the AIDC awards in Melbourne on 5 March 2025.

You can connect with me through my production company, Brokenhill Films, or follow me for updates on Life Burns High on Instagram.