INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Letizia Battaglia was convinced that one day she would be shot dead
She knew better than most the horrific ways in which mafia victims were brutalised and degraded.The death threats came in the form of
anonymous phone calls and letters
But she carried on, documenting the mafia's most horrific crimes through photography for almost 20 years, refusing to be cowed
Some of her images were later used as evidence in court hearings.Now 84, Italy's first female newspaper photographer is the subject of
award-winning director Kim Longinotto's new documentary film, Shooting The Mafia, which lays bare the ugly realities of life under the
Corleonesi mob.Image:Battaglia documented the mafia in Sicily for almost 20 yearsImage:Her photographs show the effects mafia murders had on
families and the community"Your first murder, it never leaves you," Battaglia tells the camera, recalling the first dead body she ever saw,
just three days into her job at a newspaper in Palermo.She recalls the sights, the smell, how she shook at the sight of the corpse
What she did not know at that time was that this would be the first of hundreds of bodies, the start of "an archive of blood".In sharp
contrast to the slick, glamorised portrayals we see on the big screen, Shooting The Mafia features photographs of murders so horrible,
Longinotto has found herself dreaming about them.Lifeless corpses, the suffering etched on the faces of the families left behind; Battaglia
documented it all.One in particular is difficult to erase from memory: a little boy, face down on a petrol station forecourt in a pool of
blood; a witness to his own father's murder, he had been shot from behind at close-range.Battaglia had never let anyone see that photo
before, Longinotto tells Sky News
Too graphic to include here, it features in the film because it is an image that truly shows the lengths the mafia would stoop to."There's
something incredibly unforgiving about it
This is a brutal act, there's no way around it We had to have that in the film because you never get that in a mafia film."Longinotto, who
has made a name for herself documenting female rebels and outsiders, says Battaglia's was a story she had to tell."Everything she does is
about breaking conventions, she doesn't seem to abide by any of the rules
And the courage that she had
When you think she just had a camera - she didn't have bodyguards, she didn't have anything."Image:Director Kim Longinotto says working on
the film has changed her opinion on the Hollywood depiction of the mafia
Pic: GettyAs Martin Scorsese's new star-studded mob epic The Irishman is soon to hit Netflix following its release in cinemas, the timing of
Shooting The Mafia seems apt."The more you dig into the mafia, the more you find out about them, they were just really, really nasty, the
lowest of the low criminals, and cowardly," says Longinotto
"They weren't these guys in beautiful suits that went around shooting each other, they killed innocent people, children."You realise we have
been sold this incredibly elaborate myth of what the mafia is, and it's quite shocking
Even though you think it's not propaganda, it is
You end up in spite of yourself identifying with the mafia [watching Hollywood films]
It's extraordinary."The scale of the mafia's brutality and power in the 1970s, '80s and early '90s is revealed through rare footage,
newsreel and Battaglia's personal photographs - from an archive of around 600,000 - and her memories
Battaglia herself refers to the images she took over the years as "an archive of blood".There is nothing glamorous about the reality of
mafia life, Longinotto has learned
Bodies thrown among sheep carcasses and dissolved in acid; cactuses and rocks placed in victims' mouths, a child kept in captivity and shot
in the back of the head, without a second thought."There's this whole idea of some men being better than other men," she says
"We're men of honour and they're not proper men
And it means that you can get away with whatever you want."She refers to the recent deaths of 39 Vietnamese nationals whose bodies were
found in a lorry trailer in Essex last month."I suddenly saw a link between [the mafia] and all the things that are going on in the world
right now; the trafficking, those 39 bodies
How can someone do that, with so little regard for those people
Or letting people drown in boats."How can you do that? The only way I think you can do that is by somehow convincing yourself that you're
better than them, that they're lesser than you
They're only Vietnamese, or they're only Jewish, or they're only black people
No sane, normal person would think like that."I think all of these things are why I feel really passionately about this mafia story; there's
layers of it that can speak to us."For Battaglia, photographing the mafia became her life mission, says Longinotto
"It was, 'I'm going to show the world what these people do'."But she did it for 20 years; after a while I think it starts eating into you
and it starts making you terribly depressed
She was passionate about it but at the same time, she hates her photos
She says she wanted to burn them."Image:Battaglia photographed mafia boss Luciano Leggio heading into courtWhile depicting gruesome scenes
and painful emotions, Battaglia is a talented photographer whose pictures aestheticise the tragedy
In the documentary, she tells how she hates the fact people can see beauty in the images."If you look at her photos, if you really stand and
look at one of her pictures, they are absolutely beautiful," says Longinotto
"I think that's what she meant; they're beautiful works of art, actually, even though they're of the most horrific thing
And I think that's really difficult, in the same way that if you're filming an atrocity of something, you want to film it the best way you
can to make it the most moving piece of craft that you can."I think it had become too close to home
I think bearing witness to atrocities is an incredibly soul-destroying thing
I think it's an incredible thing to do and a really brave thing to do
But I think you hate yourself when you do it."Let's say if you or I were walking down the road and we were photographers, and we're walking
down the road and a child is shot by the mafia; your last instinct is to kneel on the pavement and take a photo of him
Get the framing right, make sure that your shadow isn't in it, see where the light is, plan it and take a beautiful photo
That is a kind of monster thing to do
You have to do it."On 23 May 1992, judge Giovanni Falcone, who had spent most of his adult life trying to overthrow the power of the mafia,
was assassinated in a bombing
A close friend of Battaglia's, she could not bring herself to take the photo at the scene."He was a dear friend and she loved him," says
"And yet she was there to take photographs
She says, 'I let him down, and I miss the photos
I miss the photos that I didn't take'."Falcone had told Battaglia following the death threats she received that she should stop her work,
leave Sicily."But she went home and she thought, well, you haven't left, Falcone
And so I shouldn't leave, either."That's the only way that people can fight people like the mafia, they do have to put their work first,
because they're probably going to die
But fighting this scourge was the most important thing."Battaglia exhibited her work in Corleone in "an extraordinary act of defiance," says
"She was sort of saying, 'look, I'm not afraid of you'.Image:Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci in Martin Scorsese's new mob epic The Irishman
Pic: NetflixBattaglia was a woman, on her own
Presumably, if the mafia had really wanted her dead, she would be dead? Was it that they enjoyed the heightened level of notoriety her
pictures gave them?"I have wondered why she wasn't killed, because it would be the easiest thing in the world to creep up on a woman on her
More and more, her photographs got on to the front page
It's a warning and it's a boast and it's a threat, all of those things
But I think her images of children, they won't have liked that
The one of the little boy, they would have hated that one."That's another thing: in the mafia films, you never see the children
And you never see the effect it has on people
You never see the kids walking to school and there's a body in the road
You never see kids that have actually witnessed a murder
You don't see the crowds around, you don't see the family, the funerals or any of that
People are killed and then you just forget about them."Longinotto says working on Shooting The Mafia has changed her perception towards the
Hollywood depiction of organised crime."I've grown up watching all The Godfather films and Goodfellas, and then Sopranos and Gomorrah and
all the kind of gangster films."I completely took it
You know, it's entertainment, it's just fun
But all these films are telling us things about our lives and who we are and who to be inspired by, you know? And it's never people like
It's never people like that, the ordinary people who go to work every day
It's always these guys with lots of money, nice cars, and it's gone so deep in our culture
And that that's where Hollywood has put its energies, on the whole."It's really hard because I know I'll go and see another gangster movie
and after about a minute I'll be thinking, oh, I hope Al Pacino gets away
I'll be into it, you know
That's what they do."Longinotto may be a documentary maker, but she says she is sure there could be scope to transform Battaglia's story to
the big screen."I don't know of any long films which you can go to the cinema and watch where they have heroes like Letizia
But if they had the will they could make a film about Letizia, easily
Or Falcone."I love going to the cinema
I love getting lost in the world
And [mafia films] are good fun
But there's this little voice [now] saying, 'this isn't what the mafia is like'."The more you find out about these people - people are going
to be amazed."Shooting The Mafia is released on 29 November
