The Earth Asleep on BFI Player

Directed by Clara Casian
Composed by Robin Richards
Produced by Bren O’Callaghan

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A new artist film by visual artist Clara Casian about one of the most powerful earthquake and tsunami ever recorded, with music by composer Robin Richards, received its World Premiere on BFI Player to mark the 10th anniversary of the Great East Japan disaster.

The Earth Asleep is an artist film commissioned by HOME. The haunting travelogue addresses the ways in which our exposure to extreme live-trauma in the form of rolling news and citizen reportage has resulted in an inability to process grief at a manageable, human scale.

The Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011 killed over 15,000 people and caused a nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant – the worst such incident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

As the world attempts to digest similarly unimaginable loss during the Covid-19 pandemic, film, poetry and live music intertwine in this live rhythmic montage, conjuring a pathway by which the human soul might navigate unseen astral dimensions.

As well as the BFI Player release, the film will be screened at HOME with a live musical accompaniment later in the year – click here to find out more and book your tickets.

“In The Earth Asleep, Casian and Richards do not show us new images, do not tell us uniquely spectacular stories, but instead they confront that endless hum which has desensitised us as a global audience. It is a film to watch, fully and wholly. You simply must watch it.” – The Double Negative.

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