All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

For half a century now, the work of Nan Goldin has straddled the line between art and activism. With her camera she’s encouraged us to look at others, ourselves, and our world anew. Through her slideshows—including the epic “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency” and the legendary 1989 NEA-censored AIDS exhibition “Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing”—she’s long nurtured an empathetic lens that drives us toward care. Yet there’s danger and vigor in her work, too, which has propelled her to more recently wage a battle within arts institutions to hold the Sackler family accountable for the current opioid epidemic. Directed by Laura Poitras, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is equal parts a portrait of Goldin the artist, and a manifesto of Goldin the activist. Shuttling between Goldin’s storied family history, her artistic awakening in New York City, and her current Big Pharma crusade, Poitras’s documentary is an urgent chronicle of a fearless individual whose commitment to community-driven action is as inspiring as her bold photography. For capturing the zeal of an artist eager to use her work to create a new vision for and of the world, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed wins a Peabody Award.