20,000 Days on Earth is a bold vision of one of music’s most mysterious and charismatic figures, Nick Cave. In their debut feature directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard fuse drama and documentary by weaving a cinematically staged day in Cave’s life with never-before-seen verité observation of his full creative cycle.
Taking its title from a line in the iconic musician’s songwriting notebook where he calculated how many days he’d been alive, Forsyth and Pollard delve into his artistic processes, unpicking the ideas and passions that make him tick.
We meet those who have affected his life, including regular musical collaborator Warren Ellis; actor and friend Ray Winstone; former Bad Seed Blixa Bargeld; and Kylie Minogue, with whom Cave duetted on Where The Wild Roses Grow. Cave opens up his personal archives and, with psychoanalyst Darian Leader, discusses the ways in which his early years continue to inform his work.
20,000 Days on Earth premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Documentary awards for directing and editing.
CAST Café will serve food from 6.30pm, something hot and something sweet for £6.
The public programme at CAST is supported by Arts Council England, as part of the Groundwork programme 2016-18, which has been awarded Ambition for Excellence funding. Ambition for Excellence is a new programme aimed at stimulating and supporting ambition, talent and excellence across the arts sector in England. The fund aims to have significant impact on the growth of an ambitious international-facing arts infrastructure, especially outside London.
CAST Film Club programme is curated by Kelly Taylor.