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.