HBO has released a new trailer for Laura Poitras‘ powerful documentary, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed ahead of its March 19 debut on HBO. The Academy Award-nominated film is an interconnected story about internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin told through her slideshows, intimate interviews, groundbreaking photography, archival family snapshots and rare footage of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the opioid overdose crisis. The event has affected thousands of people, while the corporation profits from the considerable amount for the medication. Poitras worked for years in order to develop the documentary, including two years only dedicated to shooting the project.

The political film interweaves Goldin’s past and present, from the actions of Prescription Addiction Intervention Now (P.A.I.N.) at renowned art institutions to the filmmaker’s photography of her friends and peers through her epic “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency,” and her legendary 1989 NEA-censored AIDS exhibition “Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing.” These friendships and the legacy of her late sister, Barbara Holly Goldin, anchor all of the director’s art and are integral to the documentary. Goldin’s early experiences in suburbia led to her ongoing resistance against oppression and her interest towards creating awareness for situations related to abuse of power.

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in the main competition, where it became the second documentary ever to win the Golden Lion. It was the only film to play at Venice, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and New York Film Festival in 2022. The film was only the second documentary to be selected as the centerpiece for New York Film Festival. The documentary also gained a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, with the ceremony taking place on March 12.

Where Does Goldin Take the Audience in Her Documentary?

The film follows P.A.I.N., a group Goldin founded to shame museums into rejecting Sackler money, destigmatize addiction, and promote harm reduction. Inspired by Act Up, the group orchestrated protests to expose the Sacklers and the crimes of their Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin. The trailer shows plenty of these protests and how they illustrate the suffering the opiod crisis brought to the thousands of people who were affected by it over the years. The artist is seen in some of the most famous museums in the world creating awareness for this devastating problem.

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed will premiere on HBO on March 19, and it will be available to stream on HBO Max. You can watch the trailer for the documentary below:

via Collider