Elizabeth Sankey

Sophia Di Martino

Catherine Cho

David Emson

Shema Tariq

Milli Richards

Lucy Warwick-Guasp

Krystal Wilkinson

Chrissy Jayarajah

Jude Barrington-Smuts

Marion Gibson

Trudi Seneviratne

Emily Hawkerr

Jeremy Warmsley

Manon Ardisson

Chiara Ventura

Efe Çakarel

Thomas C. Hoegh

Jason Ropell

Chloë Thomson

Bobby Allen

May Davies

Documentary

Witches

MUBI

Montgomery Avenue Productions

Garden Studios

United Kingdom

Witches(2024): A Searing Examination of Medical Gaslighting and Women's Silenced Narratives

Elizabeth Sankey's documentary "Witches" is not just a film about historical persecution. It's a scathing indictment of how society systematically dismisses women's experiences, particularly in medical contexts.

Using a brilliant collage of film clips and intimate personal testimonies, Sankey traces the horrifying continuum from medieval witch hunts to contemporary medical gaslighting. The film powerfully demonstrates how women's pain - especially around reproductive health - has been consistently minimized, misunderstood, and mythologized.

The documentary's focus on postpartum psychosis reveals a stark truth: women's mental health experiences are still treated as aberrant, mysterious, even supernatural. By juxtaposing historical witch trials with modern medical practices, Sankey exposes a chilling constant: women are rarely believed about their own bodies.

This systemic dismissal isn't abstract. It's deadly. Pharmaceutical research has historically excluded women, heart attack symptoms are still primarily understood through male physiological models, and conditions like endometriosis take an average of eight years to diagnose - primarily because women's pain is not taken seriously.

"Witches" is more than a documentary. It's a necessary confrontation with how institutional misogyny operates, how it silences, and how it continues to harm.

English

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Witches

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