Film Review: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
© All The Beauty and the Bloodshed
ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED (2022) DIR. LAURA POITRAS
Written by Belle McIntyre
The collaboration between intrepid and prolific photographer and activist, Nan Goldin, and multi award winning documentarian Laura Poitras has created an epic portrait of Goldin’s hardscrabble life in unflinching terms while simultaneously focusing on her life as a dedicated social activist. She was a classic non-conformist who chose to live her life among marginalized human beings for whom she felt unbridled compassion and a deep sense of connection. These were the subjects of her photography and in whom she found great beauty. In her work she addresses, sexuality, gender, inequality, bias and injustice head on. Early work portrayed the denizens of the lower east side counterculture where she lived among artists and musicians, homosexuals, drag queens, drug users and sex workers up close and personal. It is a scrapbook/diary of her life. It is not work for delicate sensibilities with all the grittiness purposely left in, often with pointed intention.
But hers was not the point of view of a voyeur. These were her people, with whom she played, loved and advocated for. As her work gained acceptance in the 80’s and was shown in galleries and bought by major museums she realized that she could leverage her reputation to achieve the things in which she passionately believed. Her personal experience with addiction to the legal drug oxycontin, as well as seeing the damage being done all around her brought her anger into intense focus. Her target was big Pharma, specifically, the Sackler family who own and operate Perdue Pharmaceuticals, manufacturers of oxycontin, valium and various opioids and who knowingly used deceptive marketing to cover the fact that these products were addictive and flooded the market.
The north star of her crusade for accountability became the acknowledgement of the world to the evils perpetrated by this family of such enormous wealth that their philanthropy was everywhere visible in museums worldwide. To that end she formed a task force called P.A.I.N to perform active interventions in the institutions which received money from the Sacklers. The idea was to shame them into refusing Sackler donations (a very hard sell in the high stakes art world). But the actions were ingenious and carried out with the precision of guerilla warfare. The Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum, The Guggenheim, The Tate, London, The Louvre. These are all institutions which hold her work whom she risked alienating. Amazingly enough, that goal was achieved. But that was not enough for Nan and her P.A.I.N. members. They wanted the Sackler name removed from the buildings. After years of laying siege to these cultural behemoths, the mission was accomplished. It is absolutely thrilling to see the triumph of these dedicated justice warriors. The film grabs you from the start and does not let go until the end. It is amazing. Brilliant filmmaking.
