The Cinematheque

“This deeply personal, essayistic film by Elizabeth Sankey impressively manages to be very moving but never mawkish, raw but also surgically precise.”

Leslie Felperin, The Guardian

Grounded in her own story of being admitted to a psychiatric ward within a month of giving birth to her son, Witches writer-director Elizabeth Sankey shares her deeply personal experience of postpartum depression: ​“I need you to know how it feels to lose your mind completely. I want you to see what I saw; feel what I felt. While I survived, far too many have not.” With clever and unflinching prose, Sankey’s narration weaves her own story with astute pop-culture analysis of the cultural myths and symbolism surrounding witches, illustrating the terrifying and often misunderstood reality of postpartum depression, maternal OCD, and psychosis. Clips from films such as Häxan (1922), Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), and The Witch (2015) are intercut alongside interviews with medical professionals, academics, and mothers with lived experience of postpartum illnesses to illuminate the stigma surrounding maternal mental health and emphasize the importance of solidarity and peer support.

“Leaves you wowed, wounded, and also—most importantly—educated on a subject about which very little is known.” David Jenkins, Little White Lies

Post-screening discussion with Dr. Deirdre Ryan, clinical associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UBC.

Moderated by Dr. Harry Karlinsky, series director.