Life Burns High is a documentary portrait of one of Australia’s most dazzling writers, from her childhood in the sunlit seaside town of Kiama in the 1920s to her too early death In the 1960s. Novelist and columnist Charmian Clift was a household name in Australia: a glamorous rebel, a formidable non-conformist admired by a circle of artistic friends and peers. Her marriage to the flamboyant golden boy of Australian journalism, George Johnston, was a creative dream, but the partnership that began with a shared inspiration morphed into a dark, competitive, jealous rivalry.

Writer/producer/director Rachel Lane has assembled friends and family of Clift, both from Australia and the Greek island colony of Hydra where they spent many years, along with excerpts from a vast archive of work. Despite her obvious talent, prolific work ethic and the permissive Bohemian milieu she and Johnston moved within, Charmian was nonetheless a woman constrained by the expectations of her time— expected to be a mother and supportive helpmate to her husband at the expense of her own creative practice and eventually her sanity. Pulling together fragments from a life of boundless potential and deep frustration, Life Burns High resonates with feeling for this fascinating and elusive artist.