INDEX
The Impact of Modest Use of Soundtrack
The film then moves on to Goldin’s recollections of the horrific violence at the hands of her then boyfriend Brian, the allegations of following P.A.I.N. members, the AIDS epidemic and the deaths of fellow members in the late 1980s, discrimination against the gay community and prejudice against drug addicts, and the political repression that underlies all of these issues, and then to the The film takes a serious turn as it moves back and forth between the present and the past, including the hearing* of Perdue Pharma’s bankruptcy petition. The film then moves on to the shocking truth behind the sister’s suicide, which takes place in about 60 minutes or less. In contrast to the first half of the film, the use of existing music is completely eliminated.
In a documentary film, the dramatic effect of such an explicit absence of music is particularly significant. This method of eliminating “direction” in the narrow sense and directing the viewer’s attention to “reality itself” is remarkably effective in this film, and we, the viewers, are thrown into the midst of this tension without any choice.
*In 2019, Perdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy protection and attempted to avoid large sums of money from the opioid lawsuit.
And the music, which returns after a series of such silences, is equally dramatic in its effect. In the above scene, in which the hidden truth about the sister’s death is told, the music by Soundwalk Collective, the sound art collective responsible for the film’s overall score, is particularly effective. The family story, re-told to a minimalist, fantastical tune entitled “Sisters II” on the soundtrack, reflects the courageous activism of an artist, but above all, it is the story of a woman who is in the midst of her own trauma and the trauma of her parents, who are hiding from her. The film is about her own trauma, the mistakes covered up by her parents, the weight of secrets, and the fight against/elimination of the stigma that is stamped on them. At the same time, it suggests that for Goldin, the subject is a wound that must be confronted with all one’s strength, a wound that, like the opioid addiction into which she once fell, returns reluctantly with a primordial fear and anger.
That is why she now fights against concealment, secrecy, and prejudice (stigma). For her, evil is both social and personal. In a very direct way, the film reveals the intertwining of ‘All The Beauty And The Bloodshed’ in her life, and urges us, the viewers, to be brave enough to trace the pattern of this intertwining in our own lives.
