A LION IN HER OWN RIGHT

Laura Poitras’ Doc About the Sackler Family Wins Top Award at Venice Film Festival

The documentary follows Nan Goldin’s activism against the Sackler family, titans in the art world and alleged beneficiaries of America’s opioid crisis.

Laura Poitras’ latest exposé, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, was awarded the highly coveted Golden Lion award at the 79th Venice Film Festival on Saturday. The film follows the life and activism of Nan Goldin and her battle against Purdue Pharma owners, the Sackler family, who agreed in March to a court settlement of $6 billion toward victims of their highly addictive drug, OxyContin. The Sacklers were described in 2020 by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform as having played a “central role in fueling one of America's most devastating public health crises,” having generated over $35 billion in revenue off the prescription painkiller. After receiving the top award, Poitras thanked the festival for recognizing that “documentary is cinema.” The film adds to Poitras’ highly acclaimed canon of work, including her Oscar-winning film Citizenfour about Edward Snowden, and the Oscar-nominated 2006 documentary My Country, My Country on life in Iraq under American occupation.