SHOOTING THE MAFIA
I attended Sundance in person once, in 2019, and had the chance to see a few great movies. Surprisingly though, the one that’s most stuck with me is a tiny documentary, SHOOTING THE MAFIA (trailer here), which made little noise after the festival. Filmmaker Kim Longinotto profiles Letizia Battaglia, the first female photographer to work at a daily paper in Italy, who spent much of her career capturing the violence of the Sicilian mafia. Archival footage and Battaglia’s photos meld to create a graphic, volatile image of Palermo in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and a present-day interview with Battaglia makes it clear that she has the singular personality necessary to work amidst such danger. She is charismatic and impassioned, having spent her life challenging Italy’s patriarchal systems. After escaping an abusive marriage in her youth, Battaglia embraced independence, finding her passion for photography at the age of 40 and committing herself to documenting the terror inflicted by the mafia’s stranglehold on the island. SHOOTING THE MAFIA is available to rent on major VOD platforms.
—Nolan Russell, Executive Assistant
