All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022)

Movie Info

Taking the fight to the Met

Nan Goldin explores her life and her childhood growing up in a troubled family until she finds her art and style.  Nan becomes a hero of the counterculture by taking photographs of those who have been missed by society as A.I.D.S. and H.I.V. rages among her friends.  When Nan becomes addicted OxyContin but manages to break her addiction, she finds new goal…bring down the Sackler family and sever their ties to the art world that she is a part of.

Directed by Laura Poitras, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is a documentary feature.  The film focuses on Nan Goldin (September 12, 1953-) and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature.

I don’t know much about Nan Goldin.  I believe I’ve heard her name, but I wasn’t sure about her art or work.  With little background, the movie does a nice job presenting Nan and her art while telling a compelling story about fighting back.

An artist capturing the world around her

The film follows a couple different “storylines” in Nan’s life.  It looks at her sister’s suicide and how it affected her own direction plus the relationship with her parents (this is kind of used as the bookends of the film).  It then looks at Nan’s life as a developing photographer with friends among Andy Warhol’s Factory and her portrayal of the LGTBQ culture during the A.I.D.S. crisis.  The third theme is Nan’s battle with Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family due to her personal addiction to pharmaceuticals they released (and her near overdose on fentanyl).

In addition to a story, you do get a pretty good sense of Nan as a person.  She is reflective and realizes that her life isn’t like the standard woman her age.  She’s had a strange life and has met people over the years that really make her unique and worth a full length documentary.  Some documentaries have worthy subjects, but the substance is a bit thin…Nan Goldin isn’t one of those cases.

Nan keeps the pressure on

The movie is pretty standard fare in its style and look.  It uses a lot of Nan’s photography to build her story along with interviews with Nan and those who know her.  The movie also uses a lot of current footage of Nan’s fight with the pharmaceutical company and some rather interesting moments of seeing the Sackler being faced by their crimes.

Nan Goldin is a fighter, and she has fought for years.   The fight to strip the Sackler name from the museums he loved is fitting since you could argue that the Sackler family didn’t pay enough for the crimes they committed…their name and legacy is potentially more important.  Nan Goldin and her activism can be credited for helping with the fight and a battle that is never ending…Nan will keep fighting, and All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is a nice tribute to her.

Related Links:

The 95th Academy Award Nominations