All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

Goldin is most known for her intimate, explicit photographs of friends and lovers in the LGTBQ subcultures of 1980s/90s Boston and New York, as well as the effects of the HIV/AIDS Crisis.

After struggling with addiction to the opioid painkiller Oxycontin, in 2017 the photographer attempted to hold the Sackler family (the owners of Purdue Pharma, who created Oxycontin) to account for their responsibility for the staggering opiod epidemic in the USA. Through the foundation of the protest organisation PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), Goldin began lobbying galleries and museums, who received donations from the Sacklers, to disavow the family and its ill-gotten funds.

Poitras’s film is an unconventional biography that ties Goldin’s work and its themes in with her activism and personal history. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is an empowering work about political awareness and artistic expression, and is an inspiring call to arms. We think it’s one of the best documentaries of the year – and a sure-fire hit at the Oscar’s® too.