All the beauty and the bloodshed dir. by Laura Poitras

This documentary, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival in 2022, is exceptional in that it constitutes a unique collaboration of an artist with a director based on enormous trust. Goldin had already filmed her initial political action against the Sackler family in the MET before agreeing to the project and she was promised to be able to have a say in the editing of the documentary. She also developed a friendship with Poitras during the audio interviews later used in the film and consequently felt safe to reveal her innermost feelings to the director. We learn about Goldin’s tragic family history, her part in the New York counterculture and follow her political crusades, ranging from her show about the devastation of AIDS to her fight against the pharmaceutical Sackler dynasty, art philanthropists with blood on their hands. Because Goldin always documented her life in pictures and film, the archival material used is incredibly rich which renders the documentary so gripping and lively. Goldin was herself addicted to OxyContin, the prescription painkiller that made the Sackler family rich and sparked the opioid crisis that is still killing thousands of people in America. With her group PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) she staged protests inside the museums that received donations from the Sacklers, throwing pill bottles and fake medical prescriptions around. The film also shows a harrowing scene during the federal court case, in which the parents who lost children because of OxyContin testify via Zoom. Goldin, on top of being an exceptionally gifted artist, is an extremely brave person and shows that even a small number of dedicated people can have an incredible powerful impact on changing society for the better.

Obenir en médiathèque (version française) - In der Mediathek verfügbar (Deutsche Fassung)