‘Witches’ Review – Feminine Freedom In Confessional Filmmaking [Tribeca 2024]

Witches is a film for women about women. It’s the kind of film that travelers across the valleys of femininity are looking for. This documentary digs deep and what it unearths, truly shatters. 

It is a pleasure to discover Elizabeth Sankey’s brilliant confessional documentary as part of the stunning lineup at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. It perfectly blends a history of how witches are portrayed in various films and TV series – women who lose their minds, who dare to rebel, and defy tradition, and women who are unmotherly or unfeminine. Then the mood shifts and the film reveals itself to be about another type of falsely accused witchcraft: mental illness in women, and most prominently postpartum depression.

This documentary feels like a tribute to all wild women tired and weary of being accused, abused, and misunderstood. A woman’s brave journey into the heart of herself as she becomes the canvas on which all works of art depicting witches are embroidered.

To walk into the river of madness and come out alive is bound to be one of the highest acts of bravery. When a woman is condemned or described as mad, she knows she won’t get away with it easily. Women are expected to go rogue, to be of unsound mind so that society smiles and understands why they choose to stray from the predefined. Now they can lock them up without a hint of guilt, and keep them out of sight so they don’t set an example for the younger girls. 

Sankey brings that to the attention through her calm and calculated narration. She speaks through a haunted retelling of what she has been through. Through her honest words, women far away feel less alone, less confined to a particular expectation of them. She describes her hectic pregnancy journey, bravely cutting through all the myths about the sacred mother, who finds joy and happiness in carrying another creature around in her belly. 

In this documentary, masks fall and truths are spoken about what it means to be a woman who does not fit a category of what a woman should be. All this is told through the veil of scenes from films and TV series which show all the shades of women losing their grip on so-called reality. Sankey is a clever filmmaker; she wants to keep her audience captive, never letting them go even as they get more and more scared to continue walking through that tunnel of madness with her.

Our fearless director breaks down taboo after taboo, in her ultimate act of bravery, bringing other ostracized women closer to her agony. In her decision to be the standout, the pioneer, she paves the road for multiple other women chained and confined in their undeserved feelings of shame and unworthiness. She interviews other women, and in that act of solidarity finds connection and inspiration more than anything else she has done in her life. Various women from different backgrounds and professions speak up about their experiences with postpartum depression, Sankey’s choice of witches is an allegory to women stranded alone on islands of chaos and misunderstandings. Her coven is all the women who bravely supported her and stood by her side, finding in her hardship a balm soothing their wounds and discrepancies.

The film loses a bit of the charm and energy the opening act conjures once the interviews begin in earnest. Still, through her selection of clips, spot-on movie scenes, and bits from old motherhood advertisements, the less active parts of the movie soon seem as dynamic and vigorous.

Witches is a powerful statement, a new brand of confessional documentary like no other. In self-expression we find solace, in the connection we find peace, in unabashed existence we find freedom.

Witches held its World Premiere as a part of the Viewpoints section of the 2024 Tribeca Festival.

Director: Elizabeth Sankey

Rated: NR

Runtime: 90m