58
Shooting the Mafia is most fascinating when it uses Battaglia’s story, her reminiscences, and her unforgettable photographs, to show rather than tell the painful circumstances of Sicilian life under mob rule.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
70
Battaglia talks candidly as she picks over the pieces of a life that could easily stretch to more than one film.
70
The mafia murder images are stomach turning, viewers take note. Letizia talks about her life at great length and some of it is redundant, but she is always charming and inspirational, living as a strong, independent woman in a crushing patriarchy.
50
The Hollywood Reporter by Caryn James
Mildly informative but superficial, Shooting the Mafia is much less dynamic than its title.
63
Kim Longinotto is so eager to celebrate her hero that she also glides past thornier portions of Letizia Battaglia’s life.
50
The New York Times by Glenn Kenny
Idiosyncratic to the point of alienation.
60
Not quite a fleshed-out personal study, nor fully a meditation on what Battaglia’s camera sees, this intriguing but frustrating film finally makes the case for letting the photographer’s pictures tell their story.
70
Los Angeles Times by Katie Walsh
Longinotto’s film is a rollicking depiction of the wonderfully self-possessed Battaglia.
75
It takes guts to take on the mob in a place where its been tolerated for centuries. And sometimes the bravest of those in that fight aren’t in uniform. Some of them are still carrying a Pentax.
55
Shooting the Mafia is, if nothing else, a decent introduction to Battaglia’s work, even if the rest of Loginotto’s primer doesn’t tell us much about who Battaglia is, or how to appreciate what she does.