On the narrative side, the mob epic is in full force this year with Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman and Marco Bellocchio’s The Traitor. For a different side of a life of crime, arriving this month is a documentary that takes a unique, vivid perspective into the mafia world. Kim Longinotto’s Shooting the Mafia tells the story of Letizia Battaglia, a veteran photographer who was immersed in the Sicilian mob, including the brutal aftermath of the crimes, including nightly public murders in Palermo, Sicily.
Ahead of a November 22 release via Cohen Media Group, we’re pleased to present the exclusive trailer, which shows no shortage of striking photos and previews Battaglia’s reflective, revealing conversational tone in the film, which has played at Berlinale, Sundance, BFI London Film Festival, and more.
“The film is most effective in its more personal passages as Batteglia talks with Longinotto about her work and those lost along the way,” John Fink said in our Sundance review. “Confronting the costs of the mafia’s operations from the 1970s to the present day, she perseveres with a long memory as the world eventually comes crashing down on the mafia and its internal war becomes external.”
See the exclusive trailer below.
Sicilian photographer Letizia Battaglia began a lifelong battle with the Mafia when she first dared to point her camera at a brutally slain victim. A woman whose passions led her to abandon traditional family life and become a photojournalist in the 1970s, Battaglia found herself on the front lines during one of the bloodiest chapters in Italy’s recent history. She fearlessly and artfully captured everyday Sicilian life—from weddings and funerals to the grisly murders of ordinary citizens—to tell the narrative of how the community she loved in her native Palermo was forced into silence by the Cosa Nostra. Weaving together Battaglia’s striking black-and-white photographs, rare archival footage, classic Italian films, and the 84-year-old’s own memories, SHOOTING THE MAFIA paints a portrait of a remarkable woman whose bravery and defiance helped expose the Mafia’s brutal crimes.
Shooting the Mafia opens on November 22.