“At first, I was terrified”. These are not words you expect to hear very often from Laura Poitras, one of the world’s most fearless and acclaimed documentary filmmakers. Afterall, this is the filmmaker who took on the U.S. intelligence community with her Academy Award-winning film “Citizenfour” about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. But shortly into our “Top Docs” interview about her trenchant and luminous new documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”, Laura began to use words like “nervous”, “intimidating”, and “terrified”. Rather than experiencing a potentially dangerous physical situation or government surveillance operation, Laura, instead, found herself confronting something even more formidable, the groundbreaking visual artist Nan Goldin. Not wanting to come up short in her portrait of someone that Laura describes as a legend, hero and inspiration, Laura was driven to create a documentary that would do justice to Nan, her artwork and her activism.
Laura joined Ken on “Top Docs” to talk about how she and Nan came together to collaborate on the film and form a strong creative partnership. Given Nan’s frequent use of live slideshows to present her most well-known work, how did Laura and Nan figure out the best way to feature Nan’s art in the film? Why and how did Nan and the activist group that she founded in response to the opioid crisis train their sights on the Sackler family, whose company created OxyContin? And in what ways do big themes like destigmatization, resistance and legacy feature prominently in the film? Join us for this lively conversation… and don’t be afraid.
Hidden Gems:
“Crossroads”
“Perfect Film”
Follow on Twitter:
@topdocspod
“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” will be released by NEON in theaters on November 23 in New York City and December 2 in Los Angeles and San Francisco. A national release will follow. The film will premiere on HBO and HBO Max at a date to be announced
The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.
”When We Were Bullies” with Jay Rosenblatt
”Best Documentary Oscar Nominees” with Clayton Davis
”The Automat” with Lisa Hurwitz
”We Need to Talk About Cosby” with W. Kamau Bell
”Bring Your Own Brigade” with Lucy Walker
”Ailey” with Jamila Wignot
”Ascension” with Jessica Kingdon
”In the Same Breath” with Nanfu Wang
”Lead Me Home” with Pedro Kos and Jon Shenk
”Audible” with Matt Ogens
”Camp Confidential” with Mor Loushy
”Summer of Soul” with Ahmir Questlove Thompson
”Julia” with Betsy West and Julie Cohen
”Sophie & the Baron” with Alexandria Jackson
”Three Songs for Benazir” with Gulistan and Elizabeth Mirzaei & Omar Mullick
”Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry” with R.J. Cutler
”Writing with Fire” with Rintu Thomas & Sushmit Ghosh
Sundance Lineup Preview with Basil Tsiokos
”Messwood” with Brad Lichtenstein & Emily Kuester
”Radiograph of a Family” with Firouzeh Khosrovani
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Cinema: A to B
I Finally Watched...
Star Wars Escape Pod
Pod Meets World
Kill James Bond!