Directed by Elizabeth Sankey
Elizabeth Sankey’s deeply personal documentary examines the relationship between the cinematic portrayals of witches and the all-too-real experiences of postpartum depression by utilizing footage that spans the entirety of film history alongside heartrending personal testimony.
Bruxas, 女巫
USA Tribeca Film Festival 
Australia SXSW Sydney 
UK BFI London Film Festival 
Germany USA UK15 Australia Germany UK USA 
On my way to get my tubes tied ✌🏻
"Every woman is a witch, and every witch needs their witches' council."
I started sobbing.
A brilliant, righteous, deeply felt video essay/documentary that uses the figure of the witch in history and pointedly, in cinema history to uncover the varied dynamics of female madness during and after pregnancy. I loved how the interviews and film clips were interwoven. The film smartly touches on the racialized dynamics that make this terrain incredibly fraught for black and brown women.
When the film digs into the history of the witch trials and the sanctioned murder they wrought in Europe and the US, it becomes especially inspired. To suggest — through looking at the confessions of women during this time in the 14th - 16th centuries — that the women who confessed are showing signs of perinatal psychosis is…
“do not forget those who died, for nothing more than the sin of being a woman.” - i literally can’t stop crying. i knew this documentary was gonna be good and i was right. i felt everything, every single emotion
The importance of this documentary can't ever be understated.
You go into Witches expecting one thing and you get a whole other, which turns out to be even better. Elizabeth Sankey took two topics that you'd think would be so different and blended them perfectly into a teaching piece for all who watch. It's brilliantly sparked by the personal aspect of the filmmaker and of those around her.
The neglect the world gives women who suffer from mental illnesses during pregnancy is horrifying, and it's only pronounced when you see how the U.S. wants to force women to go to term on unwanted pregnancies; with no regard for the women and their health or well-being.
Miss…
Should be titled 'Postnatal depression'.
I experienced it.
A lot of women do.
We don't talk about it. It's shameful.
I can't share my story here but I feel like I can say this, motherhood is a beautiful and terrifying journey and you find yourself so trapped in your own body.
It is like a horror movie.
There are beautiful, amazing, talented women who suffer and this film shows them sharing their stories.
I am grateful this exists.
Witches are figures of solace in this intimate documentary, which unravels the social stigmas that women have endured across centuries. Between affecting interviews and vividly illustrative film clips, Elizabeth Sankey concocts a potion that brims with courage, compassion, and healing insight.
Now streaming exclusively in many countries.
i will scream from the rooftops all day long that everything i know about love has come from female friendships
As engaging and important as this subject is, and however revolutionary the hypothesis presented is, it doesn’t stop the prevailing feeling that the recognisable images from all of your favourite supernatural classics are merely an afterthought, an attempt at making a very heady but timely conversation piece feel like cohesive cinematic investigation. The whole thing only feels congruent as a general thematic notion, with there being no real good reasoning for it being an essay film, even a film entirely, other than to be accessible.
There’s no doubt that the discussions within the piece are important - they’re eye-opening - but the form of the film feels almost reductive towards them, images of the Wicked Witch of the West do…
“Every woman is a witch and every witch needs a coven”.
need her to drop a list of all the films she referenced in this
A deep dive into the witchy hysteria of old films, now seen through the lens of new motherhood. It's spellbinding how history mirrors our current anxieties.
