Elizabeth Sankey, for her documentary film Witches, goes in front of her camera to discuss physical postpartum symptoms. She also recalls describing her scary symptoms to a ‘nice’ older male EMT who jokingly says to her “Welcome to Parenthood”! I emphasise the offscreen man’s ‘niceness’ because that’s her description, but the postpartum symptoms are isolating regardless. The documentary plays with the duality of postpartum, that it feels, again, isolating. But postpartum is also prevalent with women. Sankey puts herself in front of the camera as well as her WhatsApp group and authors who wrote about their postpartum.

By the time a few people are reading this review, some may ask “so what does this all have anything to do with witches”? This is where Witches makes that argumentative leap, as she narrates her postpartum experience with different clips. For one, we see Nicole Kidman in Practical Magic, dancing with the other female characters, playing a family of witches. To that clip she and her fellow interviewees affirm that they feel like a coven everytime they discuss postpartum survival. She then shows a clip of someone who is maybe a witch but is holding her baby, surviving, a reality for mothers like her.

The documentary is relatable in that if you know me, you know, and if not, I’ll tell you if you’re someone worthy of telling. But to a more universal viewership, this documentary lets us compare and contrast healthcare in the UK versus the world. Sankey and most of the interviewees in Witches discuss mother daughter units, which seem like standard in UK healthcare. She then interviews American memoirist Catherine cho, who had less options because there are two MD units in the US. While watching the film at home I Googled MD units and yes they exist in Canada but only for physical needs, not mental.

And now let’s discuss Witches’ use of clips in movies, astutely contradictory, reflecting real life contradictions within society. The documentary uses many clips of men burning witches. But there are also as many of women dancing with their family of witch covens. The argument here, which the voiceovers reinforce, is that women heal each other in ‘witchy’ ways that do feel ‘abnormal’. Any other documentary would have some viewers wanting more dots between the lines that it’s drawing for sceptical viewers. But there is that niche that understands its connections. These interviewees speak of the dark thoughts of postpartum that feel like a curse.

There’s also something about Witches’ use of film clips that feel like they’re not trying to spoon feed its information to viewers. Perhaps I’m projecting a ‘if you know you know’ ethos towards the documentary. But it does feel that way with its curatorship. Most of the clips are familiar to those of us who got their film education when I did. Specifically, cable TV that was around during the late 1990s. But there are some more obscure clips. There’s one of maybe a non-witch, with cuts on her face, holding her child on the beach. We all know that cinema is a mirror and is magic and all that. And watching someone survive on screen is just as good as a spell.

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