Opening in Melbourne cinemas on May 5 is Love in Bright Landscapes, the inspiring, tragic and intimate life story of David McComb, Australian singer-songwriter of The Triffids.
The first film for Melbourne director Jonathan Alley, Love in Bright Landscapes has been made over a 13-year period.
Just as McComb used his familiar Western Australian landscape as the canvas for his psychodramas and heart-broken epics, the tragedy and triumph of McComb’s short, driven, passionate life is brought to the screen using an array of David’s music, poetry, letters, and unseen family-archives; and lays claim to the legacy of a talent gone too soon.
David McComb believed in the song: from his earliest art-punk pranks to the darkly atmospheric brilliance of his last works, he gave up his secrets in the shape of his songs.
In The Triffids’ 1986 album Born Sandy Devotional he found a new Australian voice: a poetically inspired vocabulary cast against desolation and broken hearts in the bright expanse. But McComb’s health faltered and after a heart transplant in 1996, he died in 1999, days short of his 37th birthday – leaving a slew of unanswered questions and unrecorded songs.
Love in Bright Landscapes reveals the man behind the songs – via beautifully restored 35mm slides, evocative home movies and heart-rending interviewees with colleagues, family, and friends.
McComb’s poetry and newly discovered letters are read by Australian-born Man Booker Prize winning novelist DBC Pierre, interwoven with excerpts from 75 of McComb’s songs.
A special screening and live performance of The Friends of David McComb is taking place on Sunday May 15 at The Astor Theatre, 1 Chapel St, St Kilda.
Further details: www.loveinbright
landscapes.com/

• Cheryl Threadgold