December 16, 2022
FILM: ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED
DIRECTED BY: LAURA POITRAS
RATING: 2 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
The opioid epidemic and specifically the drug Oxycontin have been the subject of numerous news reports, film and television projects in recent years, most notably the Emmy winning mini-series Dopesick. The new documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed features in part an attempt to remove the names of the Sackler Family, who’s company Purdue manufactured the drug, from museums and medical facilities around the world. At least, that is one way of looking at this project. The other is as a portrait of photographer Nan Goldin who has spearheaded this movement with her organization PAIN that dedicates itself to those living with addiction. The problem with the film is that these two pieces of the story don’t completely fit as one whole cohesive story.
The film begins in 2018 as Goldin and her activist friends are staging a protest at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. They throw empty pill bottles labeled with Oxycontin into one of the museum’s interior bodies of water. Their goal is to get the museum to take down the Sackler name from one of its art wings. It’s an interesting and intriguing opening. Oscar-winning director Laura Poitras then begins the biographical content on Goldin, known for her artful photo slide shows. We learn a lot about her family and especially her sister Barbara who committed suicide when Nan was still very young. Nan narrates what is essentially a slide show of her life both before her sister’s death and after. There are long segments in which Nan discusses her artsy friends and relationships as well as her forays into making movies, working as a sex worker, bartending, and finally photography.
These scenes are fine and do serve as an interesting document about the history of New York’s underground art, sex, and club scenes. However, when we return to Goldin’s recent work as an activist, it’s a bit jarring. We see her and her group travel around to different museums while providing a minimal amount of detail on the Sackler family, Purdue, or Oxycontin.
It seemed as if these threads would eventually come together but they don’t quite do that. Yes, Goldin was an AIDS activist in the 1980s and 90s and this fighting spirit has obviously continued through today but there’s a gap somewhere in there. Her group PAIN is for people who are living with addictions but we never really find out what Goldin’s addiction is? Why has she been so focused on Oxycontin and the Sacklers? With the amount of time the film spends on her life in the late 1970s and early 1980s there’s a notable lack of detail on what exactly led her to her current endeavors. There’s a roughly fifteen to twenty-year hole in her story.
So, what exactly Poitras was trying to do with this film is a bit unclear. If the focus was just on Goldin then gaps in her story could have been filled. If the attention was to be centered around the Sacklers, then why not delve into that with more detail? Provide more information on how its company Purdue has negatively impacted people with a propensity towards addiction. The film also hints at other ideas that are never fully explored such as the difference between real stories and memories, her sister’s sexual orientation in an era of sexual repression, and Goldin’s friend Cookie who appeared in John Waters films. As the film is clocks in at just over two hours there’s plenty of editing that could have been done to tighten the focus here and leave out some of these superfluous details.
It’s great to see that Nan Goldin has come out of her own dark past to help bring down the Sackler family name but her story could have been told with a more cohesive structure. There’s definitely a lot to admire and learn from here but as a whole, Poitras’s film could have used a more direct and fine-tuned narrative.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed opens today at the Gene Siskel Center in Chicago.
FILM: ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED
DIRECTED BY: LAURA POITRAS
RATING: 2 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
The opioid epidemic and specifically the drug Oxycontin have been the subject of numerous news reports, film and television projects in recent years, most notably the Emmy winning mini-series Dopesick. The new documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed features in part an attempt to remove the names of the Sackler Family, who’s company Purdue manufactured the drug, from museums and medical facilities around the world. At least, that is one way of looking at this project. The other is as a portrait of photographer Nan Goldin who has spearheaded this movement with her organization PAIN that dedicates itself to those living with addiction. The problem with the film is that these two pieces of the story don’t completely fit as one whole cohesive story.
The film begins in 2018 as Goldin and her activist friends are staging a protest at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. They throw empty pill bottles labeled with Oxycontin into one of the museum’s interior bodies of water. Their goal is to get the museum to take down the Sackler name from one of its art wings. It’s an interesting and intriguing opening. Oscar-winning director Laura Poitras then begins the biographical content on Goldin, known for her artful photo slide shows. We learn a lot about her family and especially her sister Barbara who committed suicide when Nan was still very young. Nan narrates what is essentially a slide show of her life both before her sister’s death and after. There are long segments in which Nan discusses her artsy friends and relationships as well as her forays into making movies, working as a sex worker, bartending, and finally photography.
These scenes are fine and do serve as an interesting document about the history of New York’s underground art, sex, and club scenes. However, when we return to Goldin’s recent work as an activist, it’s a bit jarring. We see her and her group travel around to different museums while providing a minimal amount of detail on the Sackler family, Purdue, or Oxycontin.
It seemed as if these threads would eventually come together but they don’t quite do that. Yes, Goldin was an AIDS activist in the 1980s and 90s and this fighting spirit has obviously continued through today but there’s a gap somewhere in there. Her group PAIN is for people who are living with addictions but we never really find out what Goldin’s addiction is? Why has she been so focused on Oxycontin and the Sacklers? With the amount of time the film spends on her life in the late 1970s and early 1980s there’s a notable lack of detail on what exactly led her to her current endeavors. There’s a roughly fifteen to twenty-year hole in her story.
So, what exactly Poitras was trying to do with this film is a bit unclear. If the focus was just on Goldin then gaps in her story could have been filled. If the attention was to be centered around the Sacklers, then why not delve into that with more detail? Provide more information on how its company Purdue has negatively impacted people with a propensity towards addiction. The film also hints at other ideas that are never fully explored such as the difference between real stories and memories, her sister’s sexual orientation in an era of sexual repression, and Goldin’s friend Cookie who appeared in John Waters films. As the film is clocks in at just over two hours there’s plenty of editing that could have been done to tighten the focus here and leave out some of these superfluous details.
It’s great to see that Nan Goldin has come out of her own dark past to help bring down the Sackler family name but her story could have been told with a more cohesive structure. There’s definitely a lot to admire and learn from here but as a whole, Poitras’s film could have used a more direct and fine-tuned narrative.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed opens today at the Gene Siskel Center in Chicago.