All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

The Western Illinois Museum announces the next film in the Not So Easy Film Series. The documentary film All the Beauty and the Bloodshed will be screened on Friday, June 2nd at 7:00 pm and Sunday, June 4th at 2:00 pm at the Museum. The film is not rated and contains still photographs of graphic nudity. Bar service will be available for the Friday night screening. There is a suggested $5 donation at the door. 

This month’s featured documentary film shines a light on the opioid crisis and offers hope through bold action. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed directed by Laura Poitras chronicles the artistic and activist work of the photographer, Nan Goldin. The film seamlessly shifts between Goldin’s life story and her recent accomplishments as an activist against Purdue Pharma, who profited from the sale of the highly addictive opioid painkiller OxyContin. The film is a moving, sometimes searing story about a life lived with great pain and great purpose. In 2022, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed was nominated for an Academy Award in the Documentary Feature Film category. 

The Not So Easy Film Series has been created for those who have questions that don’t have easy answers. Through the power of cinema, the selected films share another point of view and offer insights about issues that are challenging to understand, elude solutions, or sometimes even to imagine. The films in the series hold the potential to move us to take another step toward a more nuanced understanding of the world around us -even if we still don’t know the answer to those hard questions.

Upcoming films in the Not So Easy Film Series include:

The Neutral Ground: August 4 and 6, 2023
Storm Lake: October 6 and 8, 2023
The films scheduled for July, November, and December are still to be confirmed.  

This program is funded in part by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council and the Two Rivers Arts Council. Additional funding was provided by a grant from the Illinois Humanities, with funds from the State of Illinois American Rescue Plan Act.

The Western Illinois Museum is located at 201 S. Lafayette Street, one block south of Macomb’s Courthouse Square. For more information, call the Museum at 309.837.2750, text 309.837.2613, or email info@wimuseum.org. More details and updates can be found on the Museum’s social media channels.