Laura Poitras's documentary on Nan Goldin's life, art and activism is probably one of the most poignant and brilliant documentaries I have ever watched. Extremely moving, the film interweaves Goldin's biography and personal life events (such as the suicide of her sister, who pushed the boundaries of norms and conformity, and how she feels her parents were entirely ill-equipped to have been parents in the first place, pressured too by societal expectation) with her photography and project to document her life, picturing her friends and community (LGBT+ people, sex workers, artists) in a way that presents them as beautiful, dignified, and looking like themselves.
An activist from a young age, Goldin documented the AIDS crisis, photographing her friends dying and caring for each other as well as ACT UP protests and interventions. Goldin curated the exhibition Witnesses: Against our Vanishing in 1989 which featured artists who have been personally affected by the epidemic, making work that reflects loss, love, lust, sex, bodies, survival, mortality, illness, care, collective mourning, and the strong political call for action.
The film takes us to the present day and Goldin's current work on raising awareness of the opioid crisis and the call to end the stigma against drug addicts. She ardently speaks out against her target—the Sackler Family—by lobbying museums (often who have her work in their collection) first to stop accepting donations from the Sacklers and then to remove their name from the buildings. The film opens with a staging of the protest at The Met where she and other members of PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) threw empty pill boxes in a fountain and posed dead on the ground.
Goldin is devoid of narcissism and elicits immense respect, admiration and passion, bringing herself, love and humanity to all she does. She too overcame an addition to OxyContin and is clear that much more change is required to address the ongoing hourly deaths by opioid overdose and the continued stigma around addition. The Sacklers have yet to be held fully accountable - they have yet to face any criminal proceedings for the opioid epidemic and while Purdue Pharma declared bankruptcy (as they could not fund the growing number of lawsuits), this was not before the family transferred more than $1bn into overseas accounts.
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