# All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
**All the Beauty and the Bloodshed** is a 2022 American documentary film directed by [Laura Poitras](https://www.edgepedia.org/laura-poitras) about the photographer and activist [Nan Goldin](https://www.edgepedia.org/nan-goldin), tracing her life and career alongside her campaign to hold the [Sackler family](https://www.edgepedia.org/sackler-family) accountable for their role in the opioid overdose crisis. Poitras, who won an Academy Award for *Citizenfour*, tells the story through Goldin's slideshows, interviews, her photography, and footage of her activism.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/all_the_beauty_and_the_bloodshed) The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/all-beauty-bloodshed-remarkable-portrait-power-protest)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writer | Laura Poitras, the Oscar-winning director of *Citizenfour*[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/all_the_beauty_and_the_bloodshed) • [3](https://www.thewrap.com/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-laura-poitras-hbo/) |
| Subject | Photographer and activist Nan Goldin, who narrates the film[3](https://www.thewrap.com/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-laura-poitras-hbo/) |
| Honors | Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival, 2022[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/all-beauty-bloodshed-remarkable-portrait-power-protest) |
| Runtime and release | 1h 57m; limited theatrical release November 23, 2022; streaming March 19, 2023[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/all_the_beauty_and_the_bloodshed) |
| Distribution | Theatrical rights acquired by NEON on August 18, 2022, before the Venice premiere; US television and streaming rights acquired by HBO Documentary Films[3](https://www.thewrap.com/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-laura-poitras-hbo/) |
| Critical reception | 95% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 145 reviews; Metascore 91 on Metacritic, labeled "universal acclaim"[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/all_the_beauty_and_the_bloodshed) • [4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed/critic-reviews/) |
| Production | Praxis Films and Participant; produced by Poitras, Goldin, Howard Gertler, John S. Lyons, and Yoni Golijov[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/all_the_beauty_and_the_bloodshed) • [3](https://www.thewrap.com/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-laura-poitras-hbo/) |
## Spoilers
### Subject and structure
The film is built around two connected stories. One is a biography of Goldin, covering her childhood, her activist beginnings with the AIDS crisis in 1980s New York, and her path to success as a photographer.[3](https://www.thewrap.com/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-laura-poitras-hbo/) The other is her campaign against the Sackler family, owners of [Purdue Pharma](https://www.edgepedia.org/purdue-pharma), the company that made and aggressively marketed opioid drugs.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/all_the_beauty_and_the_bloodshed) The two threads intersect: Goldin's own opioid addiction helped inspire her activism, and her work hangs in the permanent collections of the Sackler-funded art institutions she protests.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/all_the_beauty_and_the_bloodshed)
Goldin's turn toward activism followed a near-fatal struggle with addiction. She was prescribed the painkiller OxyContin for tendonitis in 2014, and within days she was taking 15 pills a day.[5](https://www.timeout.com/movies/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-2022) In 2017 she wrote an article in *Artforum* that announced a new focus: her addiction and the organization she was founding, PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), to hold the drug's purveyors to account.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/all-beauty-bloodshed-remarkable-portrait-power-protest)
## The PAIN campaign
The film follows Goldin and her co-campaigners at PAIN as they plan and carry out protests at Sackler-sponsored New York galleries. In one action captured by Poitras's camera, a cloud of fake prescriptions flutters down through the Guggenheim's spiral ramps, stopping gallery-goers in their tracks.[5](https://www.timeout.com/movies/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-2022) Time Out described the film as part-candid biography, part-career retrospective, and part-activism procedural.[5](https://www.timeout.com/movies/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-2022)
## Release and reception
Neon acquired theatrical rights on August 18, 2022, before the documentary's world premiere at the [Venice Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/venice-film-festival), and HBO Documentary Films later acquired US television and streaming rights for release on HBO and [HBO Max](https://www.edgepedia.org/hbo-max).[3](https://www.thewrap.com/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-laura-poitras-hbo/) The film held a sneak preview at the [Telluride Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/telluride-film-festival), played the Toronto International Film Festival, and was the centerpiece selection at the 60th New York Film Festival, for which Goldin designed the festival's anniversary poster.[3](https://www.thewrap.com/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-laura-poitras-hbo/) It opened in limited theatrical release on November 23, 2022, grossed $500.1K in the United States, and began streaming on March 19, 2023.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/all_the_beauty_and_the_bloodshed)
Critical response was strongly positive. The film scored 95% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 145 reviews and 91 on Metacritic, where 33 of 34 counted reviews were positive and none negative.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/all_the_beauty_and_the_bloodshed) • [4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed/critic-reviews/) Reviewers singled out the film's combination of art and activism. Glenn Kenny of RogerEbert.com called it Poitras's best film, citing "the compassion expressed here, and the rich complexity of everything the movie takes in."[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed/critic-reviews/) Stephanie Bunbury, writing in Deadline, noted that Poitras never shoots Goldin in a way that lionizes her, instead putting her camera squarely in front of Goldin and showing her at work.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/all_the_beauty_and_the_bloodshed) Judy Berman of TIME wrote that Goldin's courage and determination make her an effective activist, and her empathetic eye makes her a great artist.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/all_the_beauty_and_the_bloodshed)
## Poitras's approach
Compared with Poitras's earlier hard-news documentaries about [Julian Assange](https://www.edgepedia.org/julian-assange) (*Risk*) and [Edward Snowden](https://www.edgepedia.org/edward-snowden) (*Citizenfour*), reviewers described a gentler, more ruminative side in this film.[5](https://www.timeout.com/movies/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-2022) [Sight and Sound](https://www.edgepedia.org/sight-and-sound) noted that Goldin's art specialized in portraying young outsiders who might not ordinarily be in the spotlight, and that the film's present-day urgency comes from the opioid crisis.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/all-beauty-bloodshed-remarkable-portrait-power-protest) Some critics saw the dual structure as a risk: one Rotten Tomatoes audience reviewer argued that splitting the film between Goldin's life and career and her Sackler activism left neither thread fully developed, while others praised the way the two threads connect.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/all_the_beauty_and_the_bloodshed)
## References
1. [All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/all_the_beauty_and_the_bloodshed)
2. [All the Beauty and the Bloodshed: a remarkable portrait of power and protest, Sight and Sound (BFI)](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/all-beauty-bloodshed-remarkable-portrait-power-protest)
3. [HBO Lands Streaming Rights to Laura Poitras' 'All the Beauty and the Bloodshed', TheWrap](https://www.thewrap.com/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-laura-poitras-hbo/)
4. [All the Beauty and the Bloodshed critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed/critic-reviews/)
5. [All the Beauty and the Bloodshed: art and addiction combine in Laura Poitras's razor-sharp doc, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-2022)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Documentary and biographical films › Biographical films of musicians, artists, and writers › Biographical films about visual and performing artists*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license