Women Directors - 52 Week Challenge - All the Beauty and The Bloodshed

After the Oscars again neglected to nominate a woman director for the films of 2022, I decided in 2023 I would watch one feature length film that I had never seen before directed by a woman for each week of the year, 52 films.

This is the fifth of the 52.

Here is the first post

The second is here

The third is here

The fourth is here

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed - directed by Laura Poitras

Not only nominated for Best Documentary for the Oscars, I will be shocked if it doesn't win, because

Wow. Just wow.

This film absolutely blew me away.

Undeniably by far the best documentary I have ever seen in my entire life.

This will probably be streaming on HBOMAX soon, but really if this is showing in theaters anywhere around you do yourself a favor and go see it.

There is a lot of graphic nudity and language and serious subject matter, but it is an amazing film that is necessary for our time.

The life of Nan Goldin, who is an award winning and famous photographer, whose photographs are in art museums around the world, is far more incredible than I ever could have imagined, and when I went to see this movie, I was not expecting to learn about her whole life story.

Going in, I thought this movie was about the fight against the Sackler family and the fight for justice for victims of Opioid addiction. 

And it is, but it is so much more than that.

The way that Poitras weaves Goldin's fight against the Sacklers and for justice in the fight against Opioids alongside Goldin's entire life story is nothing short of masterful.

While you can start to see the threads tying together early on, the way it all ties together at the very end is still breathtaking.

The way that Nan Goldin's entire life set her up to be uniquely positioned to lead this fight, to be a voice against injustice, and to take a stand even if it could cost her everything she had worked her entire life to gain requires you to understand Nan Goldin's entire life, and Poitras takes us through that life by giving us Goldin's voice and her incredible photographs as she guides us through an amazing woman's journey for justice in everything she ever did.

Seriously one of the best movies of 2022 and by far the best documentary ever made.

Women Directors - 52 Week Challenge - Women Talking

After the Oscars again neglected to nominate a woman director for the films of 2022, I decided in 2023 I would watch one feature length film that I had never seen before directed by a woman for each week of the year, 52 films.

This is the fourth.

You can find the first here

The 2nd here 

the 3rd here 

Women Talking - directed by Sarah Polley

Despite getting a Best Picture nomination, Sarah Polley doesn't get a Best Director nomination.

Ironically, for a film that takes place mostly in one location, this feels less like a play than many of the films that are based on plays have in the last few years.

I give full credit to Polley's direction for that.

I never once felt claustrophobic in the barn set where most of the film took place. Any claustrophobia I felt was only due, as intended, to the atmospheric trauma that the women had experienced from the men of the group of which they were supposed to be an equal part.

I wasn't a fan of the voice over narration, but that's a stylistic choice that I've never been fond of and I realize is mostly personal bias, but the camera work and the way tension was held through what was mainly just one long discussion is masterful work.

It was a powerful and emotional film with some incredible performances.

Women Directors - 52 Week Challenge - Aftersun

After the Oscars again neglected to nominate a woman director for the films of 2022, I decided in 2023 I would watch one feature length film that I had never seen before directed by a woman for each week of the year, 52 films.

This is the third 

- for the first check here

- for the second check here

Aftersun - directed by Charlotte Wells

A father and daughter go on a fun vacation together, what could be more heartwarming than that?

Not this movie!

Warning, do not watch without tissues.

A movie about memory, adolescence, depression and life in general - this movie is EMOTIONAL.

It will make you laugh, cry, get really angry, get really sad, and at points get pretty confused until the powerful ending.

While Paul Mescal gets the nomination for Best Actor, it is Frankie Corio as Sophie that steals every moment she is on screen. She is amazing in this, and drives this movie without a doubt.

Women Directors - 52 Week Challenge - Fire of Love

After the Oscars again neglected to nominate a woman director for the films of 2022, I decided in 2023 I would watch one feature length film that I had never seen before directed by a woman for each week of the year, 52 films.

This is the 2nd - for the first check here.

Fire of Love - directed by Sara Dosa

Fire of Love, again, an Oscar Nominee, this one for Best Documentary, is a love story, a science documentary on volcanos, and a tragedy all wrapped into one.

You can find this movie streaming on Disney+.

Two budding volcanologists meet (the how is literally the stuff of myth and legend), fall in love, and help define the very field in which they work, literally saving lives in the process only to lose their own in the very process (don't worry, they tell you that at the very beginning of the movie, so I didn't spoil anything).

It is a fascinating look at the incredible work that these two did in making volcanos more understandable to us, the dreams that they had that we haven't quite accomplished yet, the lives that they lived, the incredible love that they shared, and the tragic end that happened way sooner than it should have.

It is a beautiful film, lovingly put together by Dosa on film and photographs that the couple themselves often shot.

Just a great piece of filmmaking that will not doubt be the basis of a narrative film sooner rather than later.

A great film if you are interested in science or love stories.

Two films down, fifty to go.