“This day is both more real and less real, more true and less true, more interesting and less interesting than my actual day, depending on how you look at it” – Nick Cave
Drama and reality combine in a fictitious 24 hours in the life of musician and international cultural icon Nick Cave. The film is an intimate portrait of the artistic process, celebrating the transformative power of the creative spirit.
20,000 Days On Earth takes us deep into the heart of how myth, memory, love and loss, shape our lives, every single day. A line in Cave’s songwriting notebook calculating how many days he’d been alive inspired the film’s title. The film delves into Nick’s artistic processes, unpicking the stuff that makes him tick. Fusing drama and documentary to weave a cinematic day-in-the-life with unique verité observations of his full creative cycle.
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 comments, “I hadn’t really seen Blixa for some years before I sat in the car with him and we started talking. I had never asked him why he had left the Bad Seeds, for example. Kylie was similar. These scenes just found their own dramatic tension. In the Kylie scene there is something rather lovely going on as we can’t see each other’s expressions but the camera can.”
We also witness Cave open up to psychoanalyst Darian Leader as he discusses how his early years continue to inform his work. Later, we join him on a journey through his personal archives.
20,000 Days on Earth premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Documentary awards for directing and editing.
Watch the trailer here.
The screening includes free food.
The Picturehouse Bar opens at 5pm, screenings start at 7.30pm.
Supported by: Film Hub North West Central. Proud to be a part of the BFI Film Audience Network.