Two intertwined tales in one movie
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Cast: Nan Goldin, David Armstrong
Director: Laura Poitras
Duration: 1 h 53 m
Available: in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, with other locations to follow
The two-part title All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is an apt one for the latest documentary from filmmaker Laura Poitras (Citizenfour), because there are a pair of separate but intersecting stories here vying for our attention.
The first is a standard biography of an artist. That would be 69-year-old photographer Nan Goldin, who has documented such topics as sexual intimacy, homosexuality and the AIDS crisis. Goldin lost her beloved older sister Barbara to suicide when she was 11, and spent time in foster care as a teenager before eventually moving to New York City.
Goldin is also the founder of PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), an advocacy group created to battle the opioid crisis. She started it after her own struggle against addiction to prescription Oxycontin.
And she’s not shy about where she lays the blame.
“My anger at the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma is personal,” she says, naming the company behind Oxycontin, and its principal owners. “I hate these people and what they represent.”
Of the twin tales, I found the activist one the more compelling.
Goldin, borrowing from the playbook of the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP), organizes sit-ins and demonstrations at museums and galleries that have taken money from the Sacklers and prominently display their name. In time, donations are refused and plaques removed.
But there’s something to be said for the personal side of the story.
We are not fully defined by our grudges, our causes or even our passions. Poitras understands that, and delivers a well-rounded portrait of a complicated individual. ★★★★½