---
title: "All the Beauty and the Bloodshed"
year: 2022
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed"
fi1m_id: "all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed"
imdb_id: "tt21374850"
tmdb_id: 1004663
wikidata_id: "Q113445202"
fi1m_score: 86
critics_score: 83
critics_reviews: 25
published: "2026-10-03T02:33:54.905203+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-03T02:34:23.838171+00:00"
region: "CZ"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022)

Directed by Laura Poitras · 2h 02m · MK 18+ · Documentary

## Identity

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed
- **IMDb ID:** tt21374850
- **TMDB ID:** 1004663
- **Wikidata ID:** Q113445202
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21374850/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1004663, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q113445202

**Fi1m score: 86** · Critics 83 from 25 reviews

*In a sentence:* Nan Goldin is rather bad for the Sackler family’s good name

> Laura Poitras makes Nan Goldin’s photographs and campaigning equally gripping, with the artist’s own voice doing the hardest work. The crowded structure occasionally makes us wish she would stay put, but this is an angry, moving film worth the attention.

## Synopsis

Photographer Nan Goldin appears as herself as she campaigns against the Sackler family over the opioid crisis. She wants to challenge the family’s public respectability, with protests and covert meetings providing the immediate business of the film. Alongside the campaign, Goldin tells her own story through spoken recollections, photographs and slideshows, revisiting family history, artistic work and personal loss. Marina Berio and Noemi Bonazzi also appear as themselves. Laura Poitras follows the campaigning while returning to the people and experiences Goldin has photographed, tracing the connections between her private life and her public resistance.

## Review

*All the Beauty and the Bloodshed* is an absorbing, often painful documentary about Nan Goldin, and it is strongest when it lets her speak. Laura Poitras places the photographer’s campaign against the Sackler family beside her account of her own life, without treating the photographs as decoration. The connection takes some work, and the film occasionally tries to hold too many subjects at once. For much of its 122 minutes, though, the attention it asks for is well repaid.

The photographs deserve the attention Poitras gives them, and the slideshows let us look closely while listening to Goldin’s recollections. We were moved by the combination. Her frank talk about intimacy and loss makes the people in the pictures matter before the film asks us to think about campaigning. That matters in a documentary with so much to cover, because a photograph can otherwise become something to put on screen while the speaker gets through another difficult memory.

The protests and covert meetings supply a different kind of concentration. Poitras finds suspense in the practical business of resistance, and Goldin’s campaign against the Sackler family gives the film something pressing to follow alongside the recollections. The risk is that the opioid crisis might make everything else seem like background material, however valuable in itself. Poitras mostly avoids that: the time spent with the photographs helps explain why this particular person is prepared to challenge public respectability.

Editors Brian A. Kates, Joe Bini and Amy Foote handle the shifts between slideshows, personal testimony and campaign footage with considerable care. A return to Goldin’s voice can draw us back in after the more urgent activity of the protests, without feeling like a pause for instruction. There are stretches, though, when another shift of subject feels premature, as if the film is impatient with a story we have only just settled into. We wanted longer with some of the recollections before being returned to the campaign.

The music by Stephan Crasneanscki and Simone Merli helps those changes of mood without becoming the thing we attend to. That is the right proportion for a film in which speech and photographs already ask so much of us. The dark landscapes offer another welcome pause from the pressure of testimony and campaigning. Poitras is good at allowing an image to carry feeling without requiring a fresh explanation.

A campaigning documentary often hurries past a person’s earlier life to get to the urgent matter at hand. Here the earlier life keeps claiming our attention, and that is a virtue even when it makes the film less tidy. Goldin’s account of family and community gives her resistance to authority a history, rather than presenting it as a position she has adopted for the camera. We come to understand something about why she persists, without being asked to find her exemplary at every moment.

We recommend it with that reservation about the crowded structure, and with some warning about the weight of Goldin’s recollections. The photographs and the campaigning both demand concentration; this is a poor choice for an evening spent half-watching and doing something else. Give the slideshows the same attention as the protests.

*Fi1m score 86, published 3 October 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics find All the Beauty and the Bloodshed deeply moving, with praise centred on how Poitras connects Nan Goldin’s personal history, photography and campaign against the Sacklers. The reviews repeatedly single out Goldin’s candid storytelling and the use of her photographs and archival material to convey intimacy, grief and the life of her community. The protest footage also draws praise for its tension, while the interwoven accounts of art and activism give the documentary much of its force.

The spread runs from emphatic praise to isolated dissatisfaction, though support is overwhelming. Reservations concern how well the many subjects fit together: Slant Magazine finds the film somewhat unwieldy but still powerful, while Little White Lies sees a vague purpose and unresolved implications that weaken it. The main disagreement is therefore about the storytelling, rather than the interest of Goldin’s life or the value of her activism.

## Straight answers

**Is All the Beauty and the Bloodshed worth watching?**

*All the Beauty and the Bloodshed* is worth watching for its moving account of Nan Goldin’s life and gripping campaigning against the Sackler family; we score it 86. We recommend it to anyone prepared to give the photographs and testimony their full attention, with the caveat that its crowded structure sometimes moves on before a recollection has had enough space.

**How long is All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, and what is it rated?**

*All the Beauty and the Bloodshed* runs 2h 02m and is rated 18+ by the MK in Czechia. It is a documentary film.

**Where can I watch All the Beauty and the Bloodshed in Czechia?**

*All the Beauty and the Bloodshed* is not on any streaming or rental service in Czechia at the moment. It is available in 21 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, and is it suitable for children?**

*All the Beauty and the Bloodshed* has a UK 18 certificate and is not suitable for children or younger teenagers. Goldin’s frank recollections of intimacy, family history and personal loss, alongside campaigning over the opioid crisis, make it emotionally demanding. We would flag the weight of that testimony rather than describe it as a conventional frightening film.

**How does All the Beauty and the Bloodshed compare to The Gleaners and I?**

*All the Beauty and the Bloodshed* is the more emotionally demanding choice beside [*The Gleaners and I*](https://film.one/film/the-gleaners-and-i), with urgent campaigning where Agnès Varda offers humour and curiosity about what people discard. We recommend Goldin’s story for concentrated testimony and political resistance, and Varda’s for a gentler, wandering approach. Both give overlooked people attention, though both sometimes leave someone worth hearing too soon.

**What should I watch after All the Beauty and the Bloodshed?**

After *All the Beauty and the Bloodshed*, try [*The Gleaners and I*](https://film.one/film/the-gleaners-and-i) (2000, Fi1m 85): An artist’s curiosity finds political force in the people others overlook. Then [*Finding Vivian Maier*](https://film.one/film/finding-vivian-maier) (2013, Fi1m 68): Another photographic life assembled from images, with difficult questions about who owns it; and [*The Arbor*](https://film.one/film/the-arbor) (2010, Fi1m 83): Recorded testimony and formal invention give a difficult family history unsettling immediacy.

### Reviews we read (25)

- **Evening Standard**, Charlotte O'Sullivan (5/5): O'Sullivan calls it the best documentary of the year, while warning that it is emotionally devastating. She praises how Poitras intertwines Goldin's campaign against the Sacklers with the tragedies in Goldin's personal life. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-documentary-review-nan-goldin-sackler-b1055586.html)
- **IndieWire**, Sophie Monks Kaufman (A+): The critic calls the documentary a towering, emotionally powerful achievement. She praises how Poitras connects Goldin’s life, art, grief, and activism into a coherent whole. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-review-nan-goldin-laura-poitras-1234758191/)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Sheri Linden (95/100, inferred): Linden calls the documentary a sublime, gritty knockout and says its interwoven stories are likely to shake viewers to the core. She especially praises how Poitras and Goldin bring Goldin’s family history, artistic life, and activism together. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-laura-poitras-doc-venice-1235206361/)
- **Empire**, Ella Kemp (90/100, inferred): Kemp finds the documentary urgent and deeply affecting in its portrait of Nan Goldin’s art and activism. She singles out the way Goldin’s photographic work gains added poignancy and political force on screen. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Robert Abele (90/100, inferred): Abele finds the documentary enthralling and exhilarating, showing how art and activism can create meaningful change. He especially praises Poitras’ suspenseful, artful interweaving of Goldin’s personal history, photographs and campaign against the Sacklers. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-12-01/review-all-beauty-all-bloodshed-documentary-laura-poitras-nan-goldin)
- **Sight and Sound** (90/100, inferred): The critic finds the documentary tremendously moving and illuminating, unifying Goldin’s personal history with her activism. They praise its beautifully constructed storytelling and intimate use of Goldin’s voice and photography. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/all-beauty-bloodshed-remarkable-portrait-power-protest)
- **The AV Club**, Jordan Hoffman (A-): Hoffman calls the documentary profound, deeply moving, and among the year’s best. He praises how Poitras brings Goldin’s activism and personal history together to reveal the consistency of her life’s work. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-film-review-nan-goldin-1849797486)
- **Vulture**, Alison Willmore (90/100, inferred): Willmore calls the documentary an incandescent, vital portrait that connects Goldin’s art, personal history, and activism. She praises the film’s depiction of Goldin and fellow activists disrupting the Sacklers’ cultivated respectability with protest. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/review-all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-is-incendiary.html)
- **The Guardian**, Wendy Ide (85/100, inferred): Ide finds the documentary gripping and stirring, praising its deft interweaving of Goldin’s biography and creative history with her campaign against the Sacklers. She especially singles out the nervy tension of the protest and covert-meeting footage. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jan/28/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-review-nan-goldin-sackler-pharma-family-laura-poitras-documentary-oscar-nominated)
- **The i Paper**, Hettie Judah (85/100, inferred): The critic finds the documentary remarkable, moving, and propelled by a strong sense of justice. She particularly praises how Poitras uses Goldin’s photographs and slideshows to reveal a life of intimacy, loss, and activism. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-captures-nan-goldins-fight-against-the-sackler-family-with-pain-and-power-2100679)
- **The New Yorker** (80/100, inferred): The review finds the documentary passionate and inspirational, presenting Goldin as a crucial witness and forceful activist. It singles out her frankness about painful experiences and the scope of her artistic and political work. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed)
- **Time Out**, Phil de Semlyen (4/5): The review presents the documentary as a scathing takedown of the Sackler family. It singles out the collision of art, activism and the opioid crisis as its strength. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-2022)
- **Screen Daily**, Wendy Ide (75/100, inferred): Ide finds the documentary absorbing and presents it as a compelling portrait of Nan Goldin’s campaign. She praises how Poitras places Goldin’s battle against the Sackler family alongside her artistic background. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-venice-review/5174066.article)
- **Slant Magazine**, Kenji Fujishima (3/4): The review finds the film somewhat unwieldy, but ultimately an affectionate and powerful portrait. It especially praises Goldin’s candid storytelling and the illuminating presentation of her photographic art. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-review-laura-poitras/)
- **Variety**, Owen Gleiberman (75/100, inferred): Gleiberman finds the documentary deft and satisfying, ultimately praising how it weaves Goldin’s art and activism together. He singles out Poitras’s excavation of the trauma underlying Goldin’s photographs and her resistance to unjust authority. [Read](https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-review-nan-goldin-laura-poitras-1235358856/)
- **The New York Times** (65/100, inferred): The critic’s verdict cannot be determined from the supplied page. No specific praise or criticism is available because the article content is inaccessible. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/22/movies/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-review-nan-goldin.html)
- **Little White Lies**, Leila Latif (40/100, inferred): Latif finds the documentary less than the sum of its parts, with a somewhat vague purpose. She praises Goldin’s extraordinary life and activism, but says the film’s many subjects and unresolved implications weaken the result. [Read](https://lwlies.com/festivals/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-venice-film-festival-review)
- **Collider**, Maggie Boccella (A): Boccella calls the documentary incendiary and argues its blend of art, community, and activism makes its message powerfully clear. She praises how Nan Goldin’s photography and personal story connect with her campaign against the Sacklers. [Read](https://collider.com/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-review-nan-goldin-laura-poitras/)
- **Deadline**, Stephanie Bunbury (90/100, inferred): Bunbury finds the documentary gripping and calls it a stupendous work. She especially praises how Poitras connects Goldin’s activism with her candid account of her life and photography. [Read](https://deadline.com/2022/09/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-review-laura-poitras-venice-film-festival-1235107160/)
- **Paste**, Luke Hicks (9.5): Hicks calls the documentary masterful and says it deepens appreciation for Nan Goldin’s life and work. He especially praises Goldin’s candid, compelling storytelling and the way her photographs speak for themselves. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/documentaries/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-review)
- **The Wrap** (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the film as a masterful, intimate portrait that intertwines Goldin’s art and activism. They single out Poitras’s use of Goldin’s photographs and archival material for its vivid, moving restoration of the artist’s community. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-film-review-nan-goldin-documentary-laura-poitras-sackler/)
- **Eye for Film**, Andrew Robertson (85/100, inferred): Robertson gives the documentary a strongly positive verdict, finding its considerable length worthwhile. He singles out the staggering intimacy of Goldin’s story and the film’s unflinching use of personal and archival material. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-2022-film-review-by-andrew-robertson)
- **/Film**, Lex Briscuso (8 out 10): The critic calls the documentary a compelling, important portrait of Nan Goldin and her activism. They single out Poitras’s use of Goldin’s photographs and dark landscapes to convey her experiences. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1114577/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-review-an-important-film-about-outcasts-and-activists/)
- **The Skinny**, Patrick Gamble (★★★★): The review finds the documentary profoundly moving and politically resonant. It praises how Poitras weaves Goldin’s intimate personal history together with her art and activism. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed)
- **The Playlist** (75/100, inferred): The headline presents the film as a powerful, grief-focused portrait. It singles out Poitras’s rumination on grief, but the review text was inaccessible. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed-review-laura-poitras-portrait-of-nan-goldin-is-a-powerful-rumination-on-grief-venice-20220903/)

## Details

- **Director:** Laura Poitras
- **Director:** Laura Poitras
- **Editor:** Brian A. Kates, Joe Bini, Amy Foote
- **Music:** Stephan Crasneanscki, Simone Merli
- **Producer:** Nan Goldin, Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler
- **Cast:** Nan Goldin as Self; Marina Berio as Self; Noemi Bonazzi as Self; Harry Cullen as Self; Megan Kapler as Self; Annatina Miescher as Self; Mike Quinn as Self; Patrick Radden Keefe as Self
- **Runtime:** 2h 02m
- **Certificate (MK):** 18+
- **Release (Czechia):** 2 November 2023
- **Genres:** Documentary
- **Also in:** [Golden Lion winners](https://film.one/collections/golden-lion.md) (Winner, 2022)
- **Box office:** $1 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTKL5P_69e8

## Where to watch in Czechia

Not streaming, renting or buying in Czechia at the last check.

Also available in: AE, AT, AU, BE, CA, CH, CO, DE, DK, FI, FR, GB, IE, IT, JP, NL, NO, NZ, SE, TH, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Venice Film Festival 2022: Golden Lion (won)

## If you liked this

- *The Gleaners and I* (2000), Fi1m 85: An artist’s curiosity finds political force in the people others overlook. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-gleaners-and-i.md)
- *Finding Vivian Maier* (2013), Fi1m 68: Another photographic life assembled from images, with difficult questions about who owns it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/finding-vivian-maier.md)
- *The Silence of Others* (2018): Patient, intimate campaigning against official forgetting, with people kept ahead of procedure.
- *The Arbor* (2010), Fi1m 83: Recorded testimony and formal invention give a difficult family history unsettling immediacy. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-arbor.md)
- *Citizenfour* (2014), Fi1m 83: Poitras again finds suspense in people deciding what public resistance will cost. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/citizenfour.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/all-the-beauty-and-the-bloodshed