Laura Poitras, ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED

FILM 045

JANUARY 23 @ 7PM / CROWLEY THEATER

A self-portrait of Nan Goldin. Photograph by Nan Goldin.

In Front of Us film series presents All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, a 2022 documentary film directed by Laura Poitras which explores the career of Nan Goldin and the fall of the Sackler family. The film examines the life and career of photographer and activist Nan Goldin and her efforts to hold Purdue Pharma, owned by the Sackler family, accountable for the opioid epidemic. Goldin, a well known photographer whose work often documented the LGBT subcultures and the HIV/AIDS crisis, founded the advocacy group P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) in 2017 after her addiction to Oxycontin, where she had a near fatal overdose. P.A.I.N. specifically targets museums and other arts institutions to hold the art community accountable for its collaboration with the Sackler family and its well publicized financial support of the arts. Since P.A.I.N.'s activities most of the targeted museums have severed all ties with the Sackler family and in 2021 Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy.

The film is structured in seven chapters, each of which begin with a photographic sequence or archival footage of a period of Goldin's life and then transitions to footage of her recent protests with P.A.I.N. The slideshow of archival photographs is reminiscent of Goldin's work creating slideshows or series of photographs, such as The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. Footage of P.A.I.N. demonstrations include its first 2018 protest at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Temple of Dendur as well as similar demonstrations at the Louvre and the Guggenheim Museum. Goldin is the primary narrator of the film, with additional interviews from associates such as journalist Patrick Radden Keefe and P.A.I.N. member Megan Kapler.

NOMINATIONS:

Oscar Shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature at the 95th Academy Awards
Venice Film Festival – Golden Lion
New York Film Critics Circle – Best Non-Fiction Film
Top 10 Film of 2022 – Film Comment, Sight and Sound, Manohla Dargis, A.O. Scott, IndieWire, Stephanie Zacharek, Alissa Wilkinson

READ & WATCH:

New York Times Critic’s Pick: ‘All the Beauty and the Bloodshed’ Review: Nan Goldin’s Art and Activism
Laura Poitras and Nan Goldin in conversation at the New York Film Festival
The New Yorker: Nan Goldin’s Art, Addiction, and Activism in “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”