20,000 Days on Earth 2014

Directed by Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard

The legend of Nick Cave is explored and amplified in this seductive, music-filled documentary created in collaboration with British filmmaker/artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. “Thrilling to behold.” — Time Out

UK In English
97 minutes CinemaScope / DCP
M
Nudity, Offensive language

Producers

James Wilson
,
Dan Bowen

Screenplay

Iain Forsyth
,
Jane Pollard
,
Nick Cave

Photography

Erik Wilson

Editor

Jonathan Amos

Production designer

Simon Rogers

Art Director

Lucy Haley

Music

Nick Cave
,
Warren Ellis

With

Nick Cave
,
Warren Ellis
,
Kylie Minogue
,
Ray Winstone
,
Darian Leader
,
Blixa Bargeld
,
Janine Barrand
,
Thomas Wydler
,
Martyn Casey
,
Conway Savage
,
Jim Sclavunos
,
Barry Adamson
,
George Vjestica

Festivals

Sundance
,
Berlin
,
San Francisco 2014

Awards

Directing Award & Editing Award, Sundance (World Cinema Documentary) 2014

An inspired collaboration between Nick Cave and British filmmakers Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, this seductive portrait purports to take place over the 24 hours of the 20,000th day of Cave’s life. Footage of Cave and The Bad Seeds recording their 2013 album Push the Sky Away is mixed with scenes – some strikingly candid, others elaborately staged – in which Cave both kids and illuminates his ominous persona. There’s generous assistance from his archives and from writer Darian Leader in the guise of his shrink. Friends and collaborators (Ray Winstone, Kylie Minogue, Blixa Bargeld) contribute memorably from the back seat of a Cave-chauffeured Jag.

“What makes 20,000 Days on Earth distinctive is that it provides an overview of the man and his art while creating the illusion that this has come together organically – out of poetic ruminations, casual encounters, ghost-like visitations and good old Freudian psychoanalysis... On a purely technical level this is a richly cinematic documentary that showcases some beautiful film craft. Erik Wilson’s cinematography brings a hypnotic sense of place, amplified in the moody strains of Cave and Ellis’ melancholy underscoring. Jonathan Amos’ editing is indispensable in navigating the dreamy shifts in and out of Cave’s head. His montage near the end of performance moments from over the years, folded into footage from a Sydney Opera House show, is a stunner… Longtime Cave-men (and women) will be bewitched, along with a fair share of folks drawn in simply by the film’s unique investigation into the mind of an artist.” — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter