'The wrong things are kept private in society and that destroys people': All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

Eva Shiels

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is a fantastic documentary covering the life of photographer and activist Nan Goldin. The main thread details her work campaigning against the Sackler family, the owners of OxyContin producer Purdue Pharma. Using her power as an artist with exhibitions in renowned museums like the Met to protest with the group she co-founded P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) on their grounds, creating greater focus and publicity on the Sackler family and their responsibility in the OxyContin crisis in America.

The documentary as a whole is a defiant and devastating portrayal of the artist’s life, beginning with her childhood and her sister’s stay in psychiatric care. It then threads Goldin’s activism and life within the LGBTQ+ subculture in New York, featuring her friends and stand out personalities of 1970s and 80s New York such as Cookie Mueller.

A strong sense of reconfiguration is key throughout the film, and although a slideshow of film photography may not appear to be an exciting venture within documentary filmmaking, it proves to be a successful stance on the impact of curation and how it continues to evolve to this day. Goldin’s slideshows are pushed together with fresh juxtapositions as they are exhibited in a new context with this documentary.

The structure of each chapter of the documentary begins with Goldin’s past and life in New York and her artistic processes then depicting the growing campaign against the Sacklers. Although this can feel somewhat despondent at the beginning of the documentary, it synthesises by the end of the work, even depicting a court hearing that took place over Zoom when Goldin read a testimony about her personal experience with OxyContin.

In my view, the feeling that I left the QFT with was one of the dangers of stigma and shame. Nan Goldin’s sister Barbara became a victim of the stigma surrounding mental health and the treatments available during the 20th century. The stigmas that contributed to Barbara’s death are echoed in the AIDS epidemic, and then later in the opioid crisis that continues today. Goldin certainly acts as a beacon of hope and truth, revealing an incredible amount of information about her life, such as her experience as a survivor of domestic violence, her past sex work as well as her OxyContin overdose. One of the most poignant moments for me came when Goldin says ‘the wrong things are kept private in society, and that destroys people.’

All in all, this documentary is extremely raw in retelling things that, as Goldin says, have not often been spoken of within society. It is unflinching and uncompromising in its condemnation of the Sackler family and the systems that have allowed them to thrive.

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is showing at the QFT from February 15 through to February 18 and February 22. Get your tickets at https://queensfilmtheatre.com/Whats-On/All-the-Beauty-and-the-Bloodshed


Eva Sheils is a Master’s student in Film Studies at Queen’s University Belfast, as well as a Health & Lifestyle reporter and monthly columnist for The Scoop.

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