all the beauty and the bloodshed (d. laura poitras)

Poitras’ doc is split down the middle. One part the history of Nan Goldin, radical photographer, a second part Nan Goldin, radical campaigner against the Sackler family. The second part lends the movie its narrative drive; the first part has more heft and weft, because Goldin’s art and its roots are fascinating, and the window it opens on 70s New York is engrossing. At one point a photo of hers of Jarmusch, with his shock of hair, popped up, even though the director is never referenced, and the complexities of that sub-culture came rising to the surface. It is also interesting to note that Warhol and The Factory were never mentioned. Goldin’s rise through the badlands of the Bowery is well told, but the film suffers from docu-syndrome in so far as the more information you are given the more you realise you’re not being given, which is frustrating. The campaigning against the Sacklers strand was met with contempt by Mr Curry, who said he had known too may privileged NewYorkers on their hobby horses to engage with their agenda, and the truth is that, as a campaigning film, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed feels a tad underwhelming. The issue the campaigners are attacking is never investigated with any real rigour, as the focus remains throughout on Goldin’s contribution to the cause, rather than the cause itself.