 | | A WEEKLY FILM NEWSLETTER PROMOTING ARTHOUSE, REPERTORY, ART, SHORT FORM AND EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA SCREENING IN THE CITY OF MELBOURNE | | 16 March 2023
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed Directed by Laura Poitras DCP Courtesy: Madman Films Screening Daily Classification: R18+
Words by Andrew Tabacco 16/3/23
Rounding out a particularly staller year for documentaries, which saw the Oscar winning remarkably shocking and frustrating story of Alexei Navalny'; Navalny, a beautifully shot film about two ill-fated volcanologists; Fire of Love and HBO’s moving film about a bird hospital in New Delhi; (All that Breathes. Oscar winning director of CitizenFour Laura Poitras’ Venice Golden winning film Lion (only the second documentary to ever win) on the life and struggles of famed American photographer and activist Nan Golden, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is a masterfully affecting piece of work by both one of America’s and arguably the world’s most important documentarians. Following decades of films covering the America’s War on Terror, whistleblowing, and public surveillance, Poitras diverts her attention closer to home with All the Beauty with her poignant ability blend a both an urgent public interest story with a more subtle personal story, that will be deeply inspiring and moving for many viewers.
All the Beauty traces legendary American photographer Nan Goldin’s life and career. Broken up into seven segments, each based around one of Goldin’s works. Poitras documents all the way from Goldin’s troubled beginnings in the 1960s, where she was rocked by the mysterious suicide of her older sister Barbara. The start of her artistic career living and documenting the fringes of NYC, taking intimate photos of her queer, trans and artist friends as they lived their lives Lower East Side. Poitras then turns her attention to Goldin’s major 80s works, her book “The Balled of Sexual Dependency” and an art show she curated focusing on the AIDS crisis, which predicably became a focal point for the right-wing at the time. We are also introduced to Goldin’s modern-day plight, battling the downright evil big pharma barons, the Sackler family. The family that run Purdue Pharma, who were directly responsible for the mass prescription of opiates including Valium and OxyContin, the latter being the subject Goldin’s own addiction. In this riveting plotline, Poitras almost adopts a cinema-verité style where we are transported into the room with Goldin and her activist group P.A.I.N (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) who protest the Sackler’s influence in the art world. With nearly all major gallery and university in the world either accepting Sackler donations or in many cases, including NYC’s The Met and Guggenheim having wings named after the apparently generous patron of the arts family. The irony of this is not lost on anyone and especially Goldin, whose works are in the permanent collection of many of the same galleries.
Despite my attempts to summarise the film, it is an injustice both filmmaker and subject to suggest the film has a simple three act structure. Instead, Poitras and Goldin weave stories, memories, art and photography to tell Nan’s ever evolving story. In an interesting turn for Poitras, who has made a name for herself for her ability to let her protagonists and imagery tell story of the film, there are multiple moments where we hear Poitras’ muffled voice off camera when reacting to happenings in real time. At first, I thought that her own inclusion might’ve been a stylistic change but upon further research, it seems that Poitras’ self-inclusion, albeit minimal, was a by-product of her involvement in Nan’s story. In an interview promoting the film with The Hollywood Reporter, Poitras explained at it was Goldin who came up with the idea for document the P.A.I.N protests and had originally brought Poitras in as a producer. Poitras was so inspired by Goldin and her seemingly winning battle against the Sackler family that she asked to direct the film. |  | This relationship between documentarian and photographer/activist, which Poitras labelled an “artistic collaboration” was essential to the quality of the film and sets it apart from documentaries covering similar terrain. Unlike many documentaries based on the lives of artists, which mostly feature gushing talking heads of fellow artists, gallery owners, collectors, misplaced celebs and more often than not, the artists adoring offspring/family seemingly living in complete devotion to their talented kin (see the 2022 documentary Loving Highsmith as a recent example of this. This film lets Nan tell not only her own story, but the story of her family, her friends, collaborators and finally, her fellow victims of one greedy family in an incredibly affecting way. It in this collaboration with Goldin, which offered Poitras a trove of breathtaking imagery from a harrowing but widely creative and expressive time in American history that allows Poitras’ more artistic inclinations shine. Allowing her to blend an inspiring an urgent story about pharmaceuticals, politics and corruption with an even more delicate personal story about a woman and her community who lived on the fringes of a (still to this day) conservative and not understanding society.
Although a lot of the press lines for the film relive around the Goldin’s P.A.I.N v the Sackler’s and the quite extradentary activism that Goldin is organising, including ‘die-in’s and throwing Valium and Oxy bottles into a fountain at The Met and creating a hail storm of prescriptions at the Guggenheim, this film also reveals the brilliant artist and thinker that Goldin was and continues to be. The New Yorker’s Richard Brody elegantly summaries Goldin’s contribution to the film stating that “Goldin discusses profoundly painful experiences (and her photos of them) frankly and inspirationally, and she emerges as both a crucial witness of her era and one of its prime movers” and through the film Poitras reminds the world how important Goldin’s work is. As a ‘crucial witness’ for an incredibly violent and tragic era that saw millions die to the AIDS crisis and conservative politics dominate the world’s strongest country, it was Goldin’s aggressively raw, thought-provoking, and revealing imagery of sex, sexuality, expression,and suffering that humanised a margin of society that was blatantly ignored at the time.
There is so much in this documentary that is a treat for both all walks of life. Nan documented and lived in one of the most influential periods in modern history and her stories, lifestyle, friends (which include KinoTopia favourites John Waters and Cookie Mueller) offer are a piece of essential NYC history. There is also Nan’s family life, which I haven’t touched on here but is deeply fascinating as it is tragic, especially some of her own relationships with partners and her family. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, which is explained late in film is a simply brilliant piece of documentary filmmaking about a brilliant artist, activist, and person’s struggle by a documentary filmmaker with an incredible eye and ear. Please don’t let the deeply ironic R18+ rating that the Aus classification gave the film, All the Beauty is an accessible and inspiring piece of cinema thoroughly deserved to seen.
Further Viewing:
CitizenFour, Laura Poitras -Available of Amazon Prime Australia Risk, Laura Poitras - Available of Amazon Prime Australia
Tickets:
Screening Daily in various Melbourne Cinemas
https://www.madman.com.au/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed/
| | WEEKLY FILM LISTINGS
MAR 16 - MAR 22
ACMI
Night of the Living Dead George A. Romero, 1968 Screening 6:30pm Thursday 16 March
The Quiet Girl Colm Bairéad, 2022 Screening Daily
Relic + Q and A Natalie Erika James, 2020 Screening 6pm Friday 17 March
Train to Busan Yeon Sang-ho, 2016 Screening 3pm Sunday 19 March
ASTOR CINEMA
ALLIANCE FRANCAISE FILM FESTIVAL
BBBC CINEMA (GALLERY GALLERY BRUNSWICK)
Warm Blood Rick Charnoski, 2022 Screening 9pm Saturday 18 March
BBBC 2 Part Finale Judex, 1916 Screening 9pm Tuesday 21 March
CHINATOWN CINEMA
Full River Red Zhang Yimou, 2023 Screening Daily
CINEMA NOVA
Living Oliver Hermanus, 2022 Screening Daily
Meet Me in the Bathroom Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern, 2022 Screening Daily
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed Laura Poitras, 2022 Screening Daily
To Leslie Michael Morris, 2022 Screening Daily
Empire of Light Sam Mendes, 2023 Screening Daily
Missing Daniel Roher, 2022 Screening Daily
Till Chinonye Chukwu, 2022 Screening Daily
Aftersun Charlotte Wells, 2023 Screening Daily
Close Lukas Dhont, 2022 Screening Daily
Women Talking Sarah Polley, 2023 Screening Daily
Tár Todd Field, 2022 Screening Daily
Triangle of Sadness Ruben Östlund, 2022 Screening Daily
The Whale Darren Aronofsky, 2023 Screening Daily
The Banshees of Inisherin Martin McDonagh, 2023 Screening Daily
LIDO / CLASSIC / CAMEO
Of an Age Goran Stolevski, 2022 Preview Screening 12pm Friday 17 March
RRR S.S. Rajamouli, 2022 Screening 8:30pm Thursday 16 March
Meet Me in the Bathroom Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern, 2022 Screening Daily
Cocaine Bear
Elizabeth Banks, 2023 Screening Daily
Empire of Light Sam Mendes, 2023 Screening Daily
Aftersun Charlotte Wells, 2023 Screening Daily
Women Talking Sarah Polley, 2023 Screening Daily
Tár Todd Field, 2022 Screening Daily
Triangle of Sadness Ruben Östlund, 2022 Screening Daily
All Quiet on the Western Front Edward Berger, 2022, Screening Daily
The Whale Darren Aronofsky, 2023 Screening Daily
The Banshees of Inisherin Martin McDonagh, 2023 Screening Daily
THE MELBOURNE CINÉMATHÈQUE (ACMI)
Flowers of Shanghai Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1998 Wednesday 22 March
Hero Zhang Yimou, 2002 Wednesday 22 March
MOVIEHOUSE
40 Guns to Apache Pass William Witney, 1967 Monday 20 March 10:30am
PALACE BALWYN / BRIGHTON / COMO / KINO / PENTRIDGE / WESTGARTH
Alliance Française French Film Festival Multiple Films Screening Daily - PROGRAM HERE
Living Oliver Hermanus, 2022 Screening Daily
Meet Me in the Bathroom Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern, 2022 Screening Daily
Empire of Light Sam Mendes, 2023 Screening Daily
Aftersun Charlotte Wells, 2023 Screening Daily
Close Lukas Dhont, 2022 Screening Daily
Knowing the Score Janine Hosking, 2023 Screening Daily
Women Talking Sarah Polley, 2023 Screening Daily
The Whale Darren Aronofsky, 2023 Screening Daily
The Banshees of Inisherin Martin McDonagh, 2023 Screening Daily
SUN CINEMAS YARRAVILLE
Living Oliver Hermanus, 2022 Screening Daily
Empire of Light Sam Mendes, 2023 Screening Daily
Aftersun Charlotte Wells, 2023 Screening Daily
Close Lukas Dhont, 2022 Screening Daily
Women Talking Sarah Polley, 2023 Screening Daily
Tár Todd Field, 2022 Screening Daily
Triangle of Sadness Ruben Östlund, 2022 Screening Daily
Magic Mike’s Last Dance Steven Soderbergh, 2023 Screening Daily
The Whale Darren Aronofsky, 2023 Screening Daily
The Banshees of Inisherin Martin McDonagh, 2023 Screening Daily
THORNBURY PICTURE HOUSE
Under the Skin Jonathan Glazer, 2013 Screening 8:20pm Thursday 16 March
Living Oliver Hermanus, 2022 Screening Daily
Meet Me in the Bathroom Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern, 2022 Screening Daily
Aftersun Charlotte Wells, 2023 Screening Daily
The Whale Darren Aronofsky, 2023 Limited Screenings
Tár Todd Field, 2022 Limited Screenings
Triangle of Sadness Ruben Östlund, 2022 Limited Screenings
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