“Love is like a tree – the leaves fall off, then grow back on.”

Love is an enigma that we all experience in our lives, some a lot more than others. It drives us to make irrational choices causing pain and misfortune, yet can reward us with pleasure, gratification and a sense of belonging.

Love Stories at Brisbane Festival. Image © David Kelly.

Love Stories is an hour-long documentary, featuring interviews with a group of Brisbane locals connected to 3rd Space (formally the 139 club), a Brisbane drop-in centre where people experiencing or at risk of homelessness find support, friendship and dignity. Interviews between Trent Dalton and members of the centre’s community, photographed by David Kelly, are woven together with music composed by Topology’s John Babbage and Robert Davidson, and together make for a unique cinematic experience full of emotional insights into these people’s lives.

To start the evening, an exuberant Trent Dalton bound onto the stage to introduce his simple premise for the Love Stories project: asking others, “what is love?” Dalton is one of Brisbane’s luminaries, a journalist, film-maker and author of the acclaimed Boy Swallows Universe...