She is one of the greatest contemporary photographers, with a life marked by death: from AIDS to the opiate crisis, her last fight, Nan Goldin’s journey is revealed in a documentary in theaters on Wednesday. Signed Laura Poitras, All the beauty and the blood spilled, which won the Golden Lion in Venice, is a journey through the life of the 69-year-old photographer, known for her shots of the New York underground. Nan Goldin practiced self-portrait all his life, and his work documents a life off the beaten track, in his intimacy. With Laura Poitras, the photographer opens up more, swapping the camera for the microphone. “Our recording sessions together were like therapy without a therapist. I spoke about very painful things”, explained to Venice Nan Goldin, very early marked by the death of her elder sister, deeply depressed. On this trauma, the film returns with the reports of the psychiatrists describing a child deprived of any support before sinking. The whole is put in parallel with a rare testimony of the parents of Nan Goldin, looking like a perfect American couple, filmed by the latter. Reverse shot: the report of the psychiatrists of the time, according to which it is not “ Miss Goldin”, Nan’s darling sister, but indeed “Mrs. Goldin”, this failing mother, who should have been treated. The photographer says that the suicide of her sister, who threw herself under the wheels of a train, rendered her mute for several months, and that it was through photography that she was able to express herself again .See also on KonbiniQueer communitiesThe voice of the photographer, known for her work on sexuality or drugs, also resonates with her most famous photos, including the series The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, which documents marginalized communities in New York years 1970-1980.Nan Goldin lifts the veil on his injuries and his beginnings in precariousness. She also says, modestly, having had to prostitute herself in a brothel, which she will get out of by joining a bar run by a lesbian community. She also reconsiders her attack by one of her companions, then narrowly escaping death… The dramas will feed Goldin’s fights, starting with AIDS, which will carry off many of her relatives, but will also give rise to new forms of mobilization. A time jump leads to today, where Nan Goldin has taken the lead in a David vs. Goliath battle against the pharmaceutical companies that produce opioids, those painkillers that addicted and killed a half -million Americans over the past two decades. who produced oxycodone, while being a patron of the most prestigious cultural institutions. Crisis of withdrawal “My greatest pride is that we have brought a family of billionaires to their knees in a world where billionaires have a justice other than people like us”, declared Nan Goldin, specifying that it was necessary to continue the fight to “keep alive” the dependent people, “to de-stigmatize” them and to treat them. The signature of Laura Poitras, investigative journalist confidant of whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, gave hope for revelations about this huge health scandal. This is not the case, but the film still includes some unseen footage, including the strongest is the capture of the hearing by videoconference, obtained with great struggle by the activists, during which the heirs of the Sackler family are condemned to listen to the testimonies of relatives of victims. Seeing these billionaires stare blankly at their screens, while parents make them listen to the howls of pain of their son in the midst of a crisis of withdrawal, and who has since died, freezes the blood.
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