new york –
She’s one of the most groundbreaking stills photographers of the last 50 years, so it’s not necessarily highlighted. But Nan Goldin is a movie buff. big time.
Seeing Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Blow-Up” at age 15 inspired Goldin to become a photographer. She published “The Ballads of Sexual Dependence,” her signature collection of some 700 unfiltered images of Goldin’s life, friends and lovers in downtown New York in the early ’80s, as she edited. She has long dreamed of making a film and still does.
“It’s still my obsession,” says Goldin, sitting in a booth at a restaurant in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, on a recent rainy afternoon. I will watch the show.”
Therefore, Goldin, whose life and activism is vividly portrayed in Laura Poitras’ Oscar-nominated documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, is thrilled, even excited, to go to the Academy Awards. She blames it on Barbara Stanwyck and Judy Holliday and Marlene Dietrich.
“I really want an Oscar,” Goldin says with a smile.
Now out in theaters and video on demand, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is a far cry from the traditional biopic. Juggling the story of Goldin’s life as a New York photographer of raw, radical intimacy and her demonstrations in the Group Prescription Addiction Intervention Now, which forced the world’s elite museums to eradicate the Sackler name from their halls. The Sackler family owns Purdue Her Pharma, the maker of OxyContin.
The film is a rich and provocative blend of art and activism. Edward Poitras, who won Best Documentary for her Snowden film Citizen Four in 2014, interacts with Goldin investigating her life and leads dramatic protests at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, and more. I’m arranging images of Goldin.
Poitras, who joined Goldin for the interview, explained that the film covers sexual repression in the 1950s, portraits of Goldin’s queer life in the ’70s and ’80s, the AIDS crisis, and Goldin’s current transformation into an activist. I was hoping to do a historic cleanup. PAIN’s demonstration caused his Sackler name to be removed from most museums, including the Louvre and Tate His Modern.
“It speaks to both the power of artists in society and the power of artists to channel moral outrage against government failures,” says Poitras. “I wanted it to be epic.”
‘All the Beauty and the Bloodshed’ Wins Prestigious Golden Lion Award at Venice International Film Festival and Discusses Many Things Hollywood Avoids: Complex Sexuality, LGBTQ Life, Unfiltered Reality – March 12 To the flashy epicenter of the industry every day.
“I don’t think there are many films as raw as mine, but I don’t think my love of Hollywood goes against my integrity,” says Goldin. “But I don’t think the documentary is underrated enough. It’s not sexy.”
“I was around when there weren’t any queer people who made movies, so they’re trying,” she adds. “But they are rich and I never trust rich people.”
Goldin says watching documentaries is a “painful experience.” She’s a producer, and she believes it, but it’s hard to see her life condensed into her two hours. Still, Goldin, 69, has enjoyed much of her journey, and it’s nice to see the younger generation responding to her work.
“I like to ask questions,” says Goldin. “I like to wake people up.”
The opioid crisis has been linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the US since 1999. Goldin was almost one of them. Goldin overdosed on fentanyl when he was living in Berlin in 2014. After her wrist surgery, she became addicted to OxyContin for several years. But she does not see her own activities from her personal point of view.
“It had nothing to do with my OxyContin addiction. It was about an overdose crisis,” she says. No. It was about American use and marketing and addiction.”
Purdue Pharma and three executives pleaded guilty in 2007 and agreed to pay more than $600 million for misleading the public about the risks of OxyContin. Goldin and Poitras lobbied the Department of Justice to file separate criminal charges against the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma executives. In 2020, Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to marketing OxyContin. Lawsuits continue.
Five years after Goldin led protesters tossing bottles of prescription drugs into the moat of the Temple of Dendur in the Metz, the museum hosted a screening of “All the Beauty and the Blood”. Poitras joked that the White House never invited her to her screening of “Citizen Four.”
“I’m proud of these museums, but there are still problems,” says Goldin. “The rest of the board just scratches the surface. Their money isn’t ethical either. That’s the question. Where are the ethical millionaires?”
But the experience encouraged Goldin to see what change is possible. The night before, Goldin attended an event with Bernie Sanders and Cornell West.
“It was mostly called the Brooklyn Kids,” she says of the crowd. must go out into the street, because otherwise nothing will change.”
Documenting history, whether personal experience or political reality, is something Poitras and Goldin have in common, but usually viewed from very different perspectives. Poitras has bravely documented government surveillance and whistleblowers exposing state secrets.
“Images can have this way of reminding us of our history, what people have suffered and what they have gone through,” says Poitras.
Back in Goldin’s studio, there are pictures of her old friends, many of whom are now dead.
“Everyone is there,” she says. “I keep them alive every day.”
The day before, Goldin and Poitras had attended the Film Academy’s annual nominees luncheon and BAFTA in London. Goldin has made some new allies on the awards circuit.
“I made a little friend with Paul Mezcal. I hung out with him in London. We went to see Caravaggios together,” Goldin says with a smile.
After a long hiatus, Goldin picked up the camera again. However, what attracts her eyes is not the same.
“I’m just starting again, but I don’t take pictures of people, I take pictures of places,” says Goldin. “I got out of the habit. I usually do what I have to do urgently. And I’ve had to photograph people urgently over the years. is no longer of such urgency.”
She wants to make a feature film, and even has in mind an adaptation of the book On the Banality of Violence, Unexplained Violence.
“I was invulnerable until I was 65. I’m invulnerable now,” says Goldin. “So I don’t have that much time. That’s what happens when you reach a certain age. The glow of death is bright. So I don’t want to waste it now.”
