LWLies 97: The All the Beau­ty and the Blood­shed issue – Out now!

All the Beau­ty and the Blood­shed is a film about empa­thy as a way of life, a col­lab­o­ra­tive auto­bi­og­ra­phy that is both rev­e­la­to­ry and pro­found. The Amer­i­can por­trait pho­tog­ra­ph­er Nan Goldin will be known to many as a chron­i­cler of those lost frag­ments of raw inti­ma­cy that occur in the spaces between moments: the post-coital cig­a­rette; the taxi en route to the bar; the beat after a rag­ing argu­ment; the hos­pi­tal bed repose just before the mor­phine hits; the unteth­ered child han­ker­ing for an embrace. The evanes­cent nature of the images she cap­tures imbues them with a puri­ty of feel­ing, some­thing inde­scrib­able and enig­mat­ic. This film about her life, career, fam­i­ly (bio­log­i­cal and artis­tic) and strug­gles places her icon­ic pho­tographs in a new light. 

All the Beau­ty and the Blood­shed won the Gold­en Lion at the 2022 Venice Film Fes­ti­val – a rare feat for a non-fic­tion film, albeit in this case, a deserved one. Direc­tor Lau­ra Poitras had already made a name for her­self as some­one inter­est­ed in meet­ing var­i­ous con­tro­ver­sial fig­ures – Edward Snow­don, Julian Assange, Osama Bin Laden’s one-time body­guard – and allow­ing them to give their side of an often com­plex sto­ry. While this new film ini­tial­ly feels like some­thing a lit­tle dif­fer­ent, it soon becomes clear that this is anoth­er por­trait of an activist search­ing for ways to rail against the entrenched polit­i­cal hege­mo­ny and a gen­er­al sys­tem of oppression. 

We learn details of Goldin’s ear­ly life, but the sto­ry is fil­tered through her con­tem­po­rary bat­tle against the bil­lion­aire Sack­ler fam­i­ly, whose finan­cial ten­drils are sunk into the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal indus­try, and whose mer­ce­nary eco­nom­ic prac­tices have insti­gat­ed a pan­dem­ic of opi­oid deaths in the US. Goldin takes spe­cif­ic umbrage with their attempts to green­wash their filthy lucre through endow­ments to some of the globe’s biggest art institutions.

In this issue, we place Goldin and her world in the spot­light, explor­ing her con­nec­tions to film, the pri­ma­cy of images and the col­lab­o­ra­tors she’s worked with along the way.

On the cover

It’s a thrill for us to announce a col­lab­o­ra­tion with the award-win­ning Cana­di­an-Amer­i­can illus­tra­tor Nicole Rifkin, who has pro­duced a col­lage-like rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Goldin for the cov­er which nudges at the bound­aries of tra­di­tion­al por­trai­ture. Her port­fo­lio can be viewed at reform​for​est​.com. Else­where in the issue we have new work from Stéphanie Sergeant, Ian Addi­son, Lily Blake­ly and Oliv­er Stafford.

In this issue

Lead review: All the Beau­ty and the Bloodshed

Mari­na Ash­i­oti lauds this extra­or­di­nary pro­file fea­ture that explores the inter­sec­tions between art and activism. 

For Shame: A Con­ver­sa­tion with Lau­ra Poitras

Sophie Monks Kauf­man inter­views the film­mak­er on her inti­mate col­lab­o­ra­tion with pro­tag­o­nist, Nan Goldin. 

You Are Enter­ing a World of PAIN

Activist Megan Kapler on the vital work she under­takes for Nan Goldin’s advo­ca­cy organ­i­sa­tion, PAIN.

The Art of Dis­sent: A Con­ver­sa­tion with Nan Goldin

Sophie Monks Kauf­man meets the leg­endary pho­tog­ra­ph­er, activist and sub­ject of All the Beau­ty and the Bloodshed. 

Jour­ney to the End of the Night

Han­nah Strong reports from Stock­holm on an inno­v­a­tive and immer­sive new exhi­bi­tion of Nan Goldin’s slideshows. 

The Cin­e­mat­ic Circle

Juan Bar­quin offers up a pro­gram­ming pro­pos­al for a Nan Goldin-inspired film fes­ti­val series. 

Night Walk­ing

Anna Bogut­skaya talks to Bette Gor­don about the mak­ing of her Hitch­cock­ian 1983 cult clas­sic, Variety. 

Alice Through the Look­ing Glass

Leila Latif cel­e­brates the films of French direc­tor Alice Diop, par­tic­u­lar­ly her stun­ning new dra­ma, Saint Omer. 

(Expe­ri­ence My) Tran­scen­dent Despair

Charles Bramesco teas­es out the intri­ca­cies of depict­ing activism on screen with the mak­ers of the bril­liant new film, How to Blow Up a Pipeline.

In the back section

The Best Films of 2022
A small sam­ple of our favourite movies to be released in the UK between 1 Feb­ru­ary 2022 and 31 Jan­u­ary 2023. 

Sarah Pol­ley

Sophie Monks Kauf­man talks to the Cana­di­an film­mak­er about how cul­ti­vat­ing an envi­ron­ment reflec­tive of the dra­ma in her film Women Talk­ing was a vital aspect of her work.

Mark Jenkin

David Jenk­ins meets the Cor­nish mae­stro to dis­cuss his new film Enys Men and why every­one should stop wor­ry­ing and learn to love 16mm.

Tony Kush­n­er

Trevor John­ston unlocks the secrets of Spiel­berg (via his new film The Fabel­mans) with screen­writer and doyen of Amer­i­can theatre.

Car­la Simón

Mari­na Ash­i­oti chats to the Span­ish direc­tor of Gold­en Bear-win­ning Alcar­ràs to talk lyri­cism and real­ism in film. 

Chi­nonye Chukwu

Rōgan Gra­ham goes face-to-face with the direc­tor of scin­til­lat­ing civ­il rights dra­ma, Till. 

Todd Field

Charles Bramesco hears a fun sto­ry about bub­ble gum from the writer/​director of the for­mi­da­ble Tár.

In review

Sarah Polley’s Women Talk­ing
Damien Chazelle’s Baby­lon
Andery Paounov’s Jan­u­ary
Mark Jenkin’s Enys Men
Geor­gia Oakley’s Blue Jean
Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO
Steven Spielberg’s The Fabel­mens
Emi­ly Atef’s More Than Ever
Car­la Simón’s Alcaràs
Mario Martone’s Nos­tal­gia
Kristof­fer Borgli’s Sick of Myself
Pierre Földes’ Blind Wil­low, Sleep­ing Woman
Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spi­der
Dean Fleis­ch­er Camp’s Mar­cel the Shell with Shoes On
Saim Sadiq’s Joy­land
Hirokazu Koreeda’s Bro­ker
Shekhar Kapur’s What’s Love Got to Do With It
Chi­nonye Chukwu’s Till
Asif Kapadia’s Crea­ture
Dar­ren Aronofsky’s The Whale
Alice Diop’s Saint Omer
Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light
Todd Field’s Tár
Plus, Matt Turn­er selects six key home ents releas­es for your consideration.

LWLies 97 is avail­able to order online now from our online shop. Become a LWLies Gold Mem­ber or sub­scribe today to make sure you nev­er miss an issue.