I’m so mad at myself. How had I not heard of Nan Goldin before? Laura Poitras, the Citizenfour documentarian, has a knack for finding these fascinating subjects in the middle of some climactic life achievement. But whereas Edward Snowden’s life turned horrifying and Kafkaesque in Citizenfour, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is the culmination of the amazing trailblazing life Golding has led, earning every victory she fought so hard for.
For those of you like me, allow me to give you a brief into into Nan Goldin. She came from an uptight 1950s Boston suburb, so uptight that her LGBTQ sister, Barbara, was put into asylums because of her sexuality, eventually leading to Barbara’s suicide from depression. This oppressive repression forced Nan to rebel and become her own person. She found her real family in the form of other lonely disenfranchised kids, like Barbara, who encouraged her artistic pursuits specifically with a camera. Goldin got good enough that she ended up in New York in the late 70’s/early 80’s, becoming an underground art sensation with her portrayal of then boundary pushing LGBTQ representation. Art like that has some political underpinnings, which caused Goldin to slowly transform her lifestyle to be more activist in nature. Goldin’s new purpose, which Poitras parallels with Nan’s evolution, is her crusade against the Sackler Family, profiteers off of oxycontin and 500,000 dead brothers/sisters/children/moms/dads/friends/etc.
Even without the Sackler fight, Nan Goldin’s life would make for an incredible documentary. With decades of Nan’s slideshows and footage to pull from, documentarian Poitras really gives the audiences a blueprint for how to create a real life superhero. Each new location finds Goldin discovering a new piece of her personality that would lead to the present day version. Out of the Boston suburbs she discovered LGBTQ friends/kindred spirits like David Armstrong, where her sexuality awakened. Painfully shy, her friends gave her a camera, which is how Goldin learned to tell stories in pictures when her words failed her. The move to New York put her smack dab in the middle of the gay counterculture movement of the 1980s, where unfortunately drug use and sexual abuse combined with her prominent inroads into the art scene in the art mecca of the US. The late 80s then pushed her into more political activism, as many of her friends died off from HIV/AIDS with little support from those in power. If Goldin’s story just ended there, the audience would be riveted by an amazing life spent exposing the boring world to the exciting possibilities of life on the edges, where creativity is at its most exciting.
But Goldin’s life doesn’t stop there. If anything, it’s only become more incredible. After a wrist injury, Goldin was prescribed OxyContin (an opioid from Purdue Pharma, run by the Sackler family), which she quickly became addicted to. After almost not waking up a few times, Nan has since recovered, and to the chagrin of the powerful Sackler’s found a new life’s purpose. Poitras intersperses pieces of Goldin’s amazing past with her fight against the rich and powerful Sackler institution. Goldin founded Prescription Addiction Intervention Now, or PAIN, as a social media activist site to go after these rich people laundering their blood money through various museums and universities which carry the Sackler name. And using her fame and ties to the art world, goes to a publicity war with these rich grifters to remove their names from the art world Goldin happily calls her home. Now with a bit of power herself, Nan Goldin gives the audience a wonderful example of how to use your powers for good, as she uses her reputation and cache to demonstrate in creative and more importantly, publicly spreadable ways to shame anyone associating with the Sacklers, regardless of how this choice damages Nan’s career going forward.
It’s rare and wonderful when you meet a hero. Even more rare when that hero exists in real life and isn’t wearing a cape. Ok, Nan Goldin probably wore a cape at some point, but she’s also a bonafide, 2 legit to quit superhero of the world today. So is Laura Poitras, who also bravely puts herself on the line to make sure she’s holding the powerful accountable. And when superheroes and artists combine forces like Laura Poitras and Nan Goldin do in All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, the only end result is pure awe, inspiration, and admiration, beginning to end.