This feature references suicide.
Director Elizabeth Sankey was hospitalised after giving birth to her son, spending eight weeks in a psychiatric ward due to postpartum mental illness. After being discharged, she desperately wanted to learn more about what had happened to her, and during her research, she soon found “interesting links” between perinatal mental health problems and the role of women in medicine and the witch trials, and how women were and are stigmatised and shamed by all three. This birthed her latest documentary, Witches.
Elizabeth has chronicled the female experience through documentaries previously, diving deep into our love of romcoms in 2019's Romantic Comedy and 2022's Boobs, which looks at women's relationships with their breasts as well as social pressures put on how we feel about them.
She sat down with GLAMOUR to talk portraying abuse on screen, imperfect relationships and writing as therapy.
Witches, though, is an ode to women who don't conform, as well as a rallying cry for better medical and social understanding of postpartum mental health, from depression and anxiety to psychosis. Peppered with witchy pop culture references, from Wicked to The Witches of Eastwick – it questions why certain “witches” were isolated and stigmatised, and how channelling their outlook might actually be the rebellion against – and liberation from – society's values that we all need, a rejection of the mainstream ideas around both femininity and motherhood.
Elizabeth interviews women she met during her time on the ward, as well as a perinatal psychologist and historian, about their experiences and research, as well as how witchcraft and the social attitudes around persecuted and isolated women tie in with the story of postpartum mental illness.
It's an issue that needs more airtime, especially seeing as suicide is a leading cause of maternal death in the UK, and the rates are increasing. GLAMOUR sat down with Elizabeth to talk about her hopes for her documentary being a “spell book” for parents navigating the same waters that she did.
What made you want to make the documentary?
When I was ill, I was in this support group for new mothers called Motherly Love, which had been such a turning point for me in terms of my care, because it was these women who when I said ‘I'm having these thoughts, I'm having these feelings’, they immediately were like, ‘Oh yeah, I've had that. It's awful, isn't it?’ And it normalised all those intrusive thoughts, and really made me feel like I wasn't alone.
When I was released from the ward, I really wanted to make something about [the experience] for myself, to heal myself but also to continue to – I hate this term – pay it forward, to give other women that space. We really saw the film as a spell book that we hoped that women would share if it connected with them, and they’d have it as a resource.
Let's break down the ways you feel that witchcraft and the postpartum experience can be linked, or similar – both come with such stigma and a place of misunderstanding women…
I'd felt this very deep connection to witches my whole life, but particularly when I was ill, they kind of came back to me because of this feeling that I had been evil – and that there was this darkness and madness and rage and this kind of horrible thing inside me.
Women have always had these [postpartum] illnesses, ever since we started giving birth, which has been for as long as humanity has existed. But the shame and the guilt that women feel – regardless of whether or not they're mothers, regardless of whether or not they are mentally ill – the fact that that was something that had existed forever, really shook me to my core, because I thought if that was just something that we could just not feel anymore, that would be such a gift. And obviously, the patriarchy in society perpetuates it, and it's a great way of controlling us.
You realise, oh my god, we have been spoon fed this very narrow, very specific idea of what a woman should be, and we don't have to be that, we can do something different. And I think for me, witches were just [viewed as] a really bad way to be, so I thought ‘I'm going to be more like that’.
The Wicked movie and story tells the story of a witch that rejects the status quo, did that resonate with you during your postpartum illness?
I think witches are such a powerful and important touchstone for women. The archetype of the witch is used as a way to scare us and to tell us, ‘This isn't how you should be. This is a bad woman. You should not be like her.’ But I actually think that now they have the reverse effect on most women, where we find them really empowering and appealing, and we're like, ‘Oh my god, this woman who can do whatever she wants’.
Was making the documentary empowering?
It was so empowering. I made it because I was trying to figure out what had happened to me, and also to find comfort with the person that I had been during my illness.
I had felt this massive disconnect, as I think most women do, to the way that women are supposed to be in our society. And I found so much comfort in watching loads of films that featured women living on the outskirts of society, doing whatever they wanted, having all of this power. I think so much of the time witches are seen as tragic figures. But I was watching in this new light and thinking like, ‘No, these women are great, this is fantastic’. That became something massively empowering.
The documentary features some incredible women you met on the ward, how much did sisterhood work to pull you through your postpartum crisis?
It was so helpful. I know a lot of addicts and alcoholics – I grew up around that kind of community – and it's a very normal thing, this idea of fellowship. Of going and sitting in a room with other people and talking about what's been happening, how you're feeling, what's going on in your life.
In the Malleus Maleficarum, which was the original witch-hunting book that was used as the Bible for the persecution of women, it says any women who meet together are witches. It’s a really threatening thing for patriarchy if women are meeting together and talking and sharing stuff and so that, by its very nature, means that it's a good thing.
Even in films and TV shows, so often women are pitted against each other. So rarely do you see portrayals of female friendship, that sharing of love, knowledge and experiences, it's so rare that we actually see it portrayed on screen. Gossip never used to be a negative term, it was something that was really helpful. Midwives would gossip, warning other women to be careful of that guy, red flags, all of that stuff has just existed forever. But again, it's something that is very threatening to patriarchy, and therefore that's why we should be doing it.
You also cover other areas of female gynaecological health, such as endometriosis and the higher medical risks pregnant Black and Asian women face – why was this important for you to do?
Because there's so much we don't know about women's bodies, there's so little research. It's disputed, but I believe from my research that there was an active takeover of the medical profession by men. Women were ousted, were killed. They specifically tried to get rid of healers and midwives because they realised they could be making money out of it as business. So there’s so little we know about the female body, so with things like endometriosis, a number of women don't get treatment, don't get understood, and I see it all the time with the women around me. I'm sure you do too.
I was a privileged white woman, English is my first language, and I still struggled to get help. The women who slip through the net really tend to be from minority groups, young women, women who maybe don’t have the support networks or will face racial injustice and bias. And it's really, really important that we talk about that.
What impact do you hope the documentary has on the medical world and on society’s attitudes towards motherhood and the postpartum experience?
I think there's loads of stuff that needs to happen. I really believe in grassroots activism, and that's what we're trying to do with the film. At pretty much every screening, someone comes up to me and says, ‘I've just lost someone to one of these illnesses’, it's shockingly common. The amount of money that gets spent – I think it's at least a billion pounds or something is spent on the effects of the lack of care and treatment for women with these illnesses.
There is an urgency, I think, for me, in terms of people sharing the film, so that it reaches the women who maybe wouldn't know about the resources that are available to them.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Witches is available to watch on MUBI now.
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All the physical changes – and newfound attention – can bring up a lot of complicated feelings.
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