Hot Docs 2019: Our Review of ‘Shooting the Mafia.’

Hot Docs 2019: Our Review of ‘Shooting the Mafia.’

A strange balancing act occurs within Shooting the Mafia, the latest from veteran British observational filmmaker Kim Longinotto, where the documentary’s true subject is brought into question. Should the focus of the film be the life of its human subject, or the vast swathes of archival footage that is the human subject’s incredible work? Longinotto bravely attempts to do both, however, the extent to which is successful is another matter altogether.

Italian photographer Letizia Battaglia is the subject of Shooting the Mafia, and her brazen photography of the criminal activities of the Sicilian mafia stand-out as the high point in her career. Battaglia servers as a narrator for her own journey, covering her early forays into photography to the latter stages of her career. Thankfully, the elder Italian photographer has personality as fiery as her auburn hair, which keeps the viewer engaged. This is when the film is at its strongest, which is a strange twist considering that the other half of this film is the inner workings of the Sicilian mafia. To augment Battaglia’s narration, Longinotto uses a mix of archival styles including: news footage, educational documentaries, Battaglia’s photographs, and some classic Italian cinema. Hearing Battaglia comment on romances of her youth overtop of a post-neorealist Italian melodrama, is an interesting choice, but also one that belies a sort of aimlessness within the film. I personally struggled to understand this choice. Is it because it reminds us of a stereotypical image of Sicilly? Is it because it personally reminds Battaglia of her youth? Is it to provide a contrast between the impending grisly reality with a more idyllic fictional form?  Shooting the Mafia provides more questions than it answers, but is ultimately an engaging portrait of a fascinating individual and time period.

  • Release Date: 4/30/2019
This post was written by
Thomas Wishloff is currently an MA student at York University. He is new to the Toronto Film Scene, but has periodically written and podcasted for several now defunct ventures, and has probably commented on a forum with you at some point. The ex-Edmontonian has been known to enjoy a good board game, and claims to know the secret to the best popcorn in the world.
Comments are closed.
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-61364310-1', 'auto'); ga('send', 'pageview');