The movie
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Follows the life of artist Nan Goldin and the downfall of the Sackler family, the pharmaceutical dynasty who was greatly responsible for the opioid epidemic's unfathomable death toll.
Length: 122 min
Country: United States
Language spoken: English
Language subtitles: Dutch
Cast: Nan Goldin (zichzelf), Noemi Bonazzi (zichzelf), Harry Cullen (zichzelf)
Director: Laura Poitras
Release date: 2022
Description
An emotional and multifaceted story about the internationally acclaimed photographer and activist Nan Goldin, Oscar winner Laura Poitras’ (‘Citizen Four’) deeply personal portrait of one of the most important photographers of the late 20th century explores Goldin's life, career, and activism through unique footage, personal interviews, and her groundbreaking photography. Goldin shows that art can be a weapon as she takes up the fight against the Sackler family, of OxyContin infamy, which she holds responsible for the American opiate crisis. The film was awarded the Golden Lion (Best Film) at the Venice Film Festival last year, and Poitras was subsequently the main guest of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2022. The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam will exhibit a retrospective of Goldin's work beginning in late August 2023.
‘Elegantly shaped and paced, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” relates two entwined stories. One tracks Goldin’s emergence as an anti-opioid activist… Intertwined with that narrative is an often-melancholic portrait of Goldin that begins in her difficult childhood
… Poitras’s marshalling of all this information is exceptionally graceful. She has an abundance of fantastic material at her disposal—including a generous selection of Goldin’s artwork—but what makes the movie work so well is how Poitras seamlessly uses the different sections of Goldin’s life to weave a coherent portrait of the artist.’—Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
‘Elegantly shaped and paced, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” relates two entwined stories. One tracks Goldin’s emergence as an anti-opioid activist… Intertwined with that narrative is an often-melancholic portrait of Goldin that begins in her difficult childhood
… Poitras’s marshalling of all this information is exceptionally graceful. She has an abundance of fantastic material at her disposal—including a generous selection of Goldin’s artwork—but what makes the movie work so well is how Poitras seamlessly uses the different sections of Goldin’s life to weave a coherent portrait of the artist.’—Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
