It was hard formulating my watch list for this year’s New York Film Festival. With so many highly anticipated films to see, narrowing down my list seemed a near-impossible task. What was not a difficult choice was the need to see Laura Poitras‘ All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. Winner of this year’s Golden Lion at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, both its awards appeal and subject matter made it a must-see. This epic documentary does not only capture the fighting spirit within photographer Nan Goldin, but the enduring drive of an artist.
Putting What’s Important into Focus
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is effective from the moment it begins, immediately capturing the activism and the stand Golden takes with her fellow P.A.I.N. activists against the philanthropy of The Sackler Family. And while Goldin and her fellow protestors show the nerves early on, the strength that resides within each of them soars as prescription bottles are thrown into the pool in the Sackler Wing of the Metropolitan Museum, bodies falling to the floor while cries fill the room – “400,00 dead”. As each participant elevates the idea of artistic protest, the camera capturing every moment matches their intensity, artistically framing their plea. Stop taking Sackler money and remove their name.
It is a powerful opening met by a powerful documentary. As All the Beauty and The Bloodshed continues, it weaves in and out of activism and memory. Where the beginning immediately introduces the vital activism of Nan Goldin, it is the breakdown of All the Beauty and the Bloodshed by her slideshow exerts. Starting with “Ballad of Sexual Dependency”, Goldin takes us back, her voice-over accompanying images of her sister, the primary subject of her current memory. Her first story about her sister establishes both the household they grew up in and the inspiring rebellious nature of Goldin’s sister. From this point on, Goldin’s life is presented as a slideshow of memory and voice-over, both the triumphs and the heartbreaks.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed finds its strength in its nonlinear construction, using its multimedia approach of documentary film and slideshow exerts to bring various points of time to life. As Goldin’s voice accompanies, it fully infuses every aspect of the film, giving its a raw and vulnerable feel.
The Right Side History
Where All the Beauty and the Bloodshed may have once started as a means to document the fight against the Sackler Family, it unfolds into a full circle and wholesome showcase of a women inspired by rebellion and artistic freedom. And where recovery from an Oxycodone addiction and an article by investigative journalist Patrick Keefe ignited the fire within Goldin to target the Sackler philanthropy, the cohesiveness, and inclusion of Goldin’s story establishes that her need to be on the right side of history has always been there.
“When you think of the profit on people’s pain, you can only be angry about it”. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is a documentary that not only captures the fight, but the struggle – the pain. While viewers listen to how the philanthropy of the Sackler Family was a facade to wash their blood money clean, we hear the pain through the protestors, the lives lost. Paralleling this, we experience the pain of loss, grief and struggle of Goldin through the years, loss of friends to the AIDS epidemic, abandonment and loss of family, and battles with her own addictions finding the same strength as her work to end the power of the Sackler Family in the art world.
Conclusion:
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed shows not only the power of one individual, but that of many. It is the people that truly deliver accountability. The Sackler Family may never be brought to criminal justice for the epidemic they caused and the lives lost because of it, but those who would condone through acceptance of contributions and art installations have been shamed and put under the spotlight. It was Nan Goldin and her fellow activists that saw a wrong and did all they could to correct it.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is one of the most moving and vulnerable documentaries I have had the opportunity to see. It is at once relatable and inspiring, showing the power that one person can have to make a difference.
Were you able to see All the Beauty and the Bloodshed? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Watch All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
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