Documentary Focus: A&E’s Witches

 culture, tv  3 Responses »
Jun 032012
 

A quick look at Netflix reveals a large variety of documentaries of interest to Witches and Pagans.  They range from scientific features on the solar system to “historical” explorations of famous myths and legends.  Cut to accommodate commercials and still fit into a one-hour time slot, these features tend to blaze over large territories of history and make connections among events that strict academics would blush at.  But we should still pay attention to them because they represent how the outside world sees us and, more importantly, how popular media represents us to the mainstream, which in turn affects how non-Pagans treat us.  We have a stake in how others see us.  For this reason, I’d like to explore the various documentaries of interest to modern Pagans to find how they define us, how they depict us, and how they explain us.

The first one I came across was A&E’s Ancient Mysteries: Witches.  This short documentary takes on a daunting task that even experienced Witches would have trouble with: explaining the development of Witchcraft from the Stone Age, through the Burning Times, and into its modern expression, all the while appeasing historians and modern Pagans, avoiding offending Christians, and entertaining mainstream viewers.  This is a really narrow road to follow, one that does not allow for too many large claims to be made, but, if you take these obstacles into account, it’s a pretty good introduction to Witchcraft.

Not surprisingly, the documentary begins with the ancient goddess-worshipping cultures.  While it tends to conflate the practices of early female “priests” with the modern ceremonial aspects of Wicca, the tone is sympathetic and reasonable.  We are told of how the tribal people of the time lived dependent upon the cycles of nature, and how the magic workers of the time took care of their people.  This nicely sets up the later accusation of midwives and herbalists during the inquisition as well as the modern return to a reverence for nature’s patterns.

The coming of warrior tribes with masculine battle gods who gradually demote the goddesses to inferior positions is then covered.  This is a somewhat simplistic storyline that is well known to many of us, but from the outsider’s perspective, it helps explain the coming of monotheism and the transformation of the powerful woman into the hideous baby-eating witch. Conjectures about the origins of many of the stereotypes of the witch, from flying on broomsticks to midnight orgies with Satan, are discussed during this section.  Again, the strict historian may have bones to pick with some of the material, but the nature of the discussion makes the topic approachable to the mainstream viewer.

This section naturally leads into the inquisition and the Burning Times, focusing, of course, on the infamous Malleus Maleficarum.  It links the Bubonic Plague with the epidemic of seeking, torturing, and murdering “witches,” explaining that the people of the time had only supernatural explanations for the death that surrounded them in its ever-tightening grip.  The particular role of the Malleus, according to A&E, was to single out women as the source of all of these supernatural attacks, as Kramer and Sprenger definitely seemed to have had a severely twisted hatred of all things feminine.

While a large amount of time is spent on the Burning Times and the Salem trials, the estimates of the number of victims is conservative.  The range tops out at 600,000.  The documentary moves on to explain that the mechanistic view of science put a stop to the inquisition.

To me, it’s the explanation of the modern revival that brings up the most questions.  Margaret Murray is prominently featured, and the narrative jumps directly from the academic discrediting of her work to the “thousands of people” who practice Wicca despite Murray’s flaws.  The tone is not cynical.  Wiccans are equated more with ancient followers of nature’s cycles than with Murray’s universal goddess witch cult, but there are nuances of steps between the two that are not given due consideration.

Prominent figures in the development of Wicca are not even mentioned.  Gerald Gardner’s name is never spoken.  This is extremely odd given one of the documentary’s other flaws: Wicca is the only modern expression of Witchcraft that is mentioned.  If today’s Witchcraft is exclusively Wicca, as A&E would have viewers believe, then shouldn’t Wicca’s creator, his companions, and his influences be at least mentioned?  How can you discuss the 20th century revival of the Craft without paying at least a little attention to Gardner, Crowley, Valiente, or Sanders?  Janet Farrar and other modern practitioners are interviewed, which redeems the storyline a little bit, but it is in this section which presents the most incomplete picture of the development of Witchcraft.  The documentary and its mainstream viewers would have benefited from a little less detail on the tortures of the Burning Times and a little more on how Wicca and Witchcraft came to be a part of the modern religious landscape.

Still, given its limitations, Ancient Mysteries: Witches is an even-handed introduction to a topic that is usually met with cynicism, disbelief, and mockery.  It has to walk a very thin line, and for the most part it succeeds.  A new Pagan, seeking some basic information, could get a good foundation out of this brief narrative.  It also has a lot to offer to the parent or friend of someone who has recently come out of the broom closet.  Since the central story is the vilification of Witches over the century and a positive spin on modern practice, this little discussion could put to ease a lot of the common fears held by the loved ones seeking to understand what Paganism and Witchcraft are all about. Witches are explained to the casual viewer, not mocked or sensationalized, and perhaps that single fact makes this documentary a valuable part of the modern discourse on Witchcraft.

Purgatory: the final movie on the WM3

 culture, film, tv  1 Response »
Jan 142012
 

I have two confessions to make: I have never seen the HBO Documentary Paradise Lost or the follow up documentary, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations.

I’m not qualified to comment on legal issues presented in this movie. I can form opinions just like anyone else, but those opinions will be based entirely on news stories I read and the third installment of the Paradise Lost series, Purgatory. This aired Thursday night on HBO.  What I can comment on is the quality of the programming and what the modern Pagan community might find most interesting about it.

If you are not acquainted with the story of the West Memphis 3, there are plenty of available resources.  I knew as much as was covered in the national news over the last 17 years before sitting down and tuning on HBO.

The filmmakers did a good job of summarizing the events for people who might not have seen their first two installments.  It brings the story up to date, shows the celebrity involvement to make the case public, and brings up the information from forensic experts who declare that they can’t say who did it but it was less than likely any of the WM3 were involved.  There are interviews with the men who had been in prison since the early 90s, all three maintaining their innocence.  Most importantly, the documentary includes an epilogue describing what happened in August of last year.  In fact, the movie was scheduled to be aired in November of 2011, but the events of the surprise hearing in August made them pull the movie and include the new information.

The men were offered an Alford Plea from the state.  I was moved my John Mark Byers, father of one of the murdered boys, who has spent some time reconsidering the events and believes that the three teenagers were not responsible for the crimes.  He is interviewed outside of the courthouse where he declares the Alford Plea to be “bullshit”.

I can’t help but agree with Byers – a man who at one time burned the WM3 in efigy and later was accused by Echols himself. Today, he firmly believes that the three men are innocent and added his voice to the fight for a new trial.

They would have been granted a new trial, according to the documentary, but Arkansas made a sharp left turn by calling a special hearing and offering them the Alford plea.  Rather than exonerating the three convicted men, this option exonerates the state from being accused of a witch hunt themselves. They wash their hands of it, the men proclaim innocence but declare guilt and everyone goes home and about their business. Meanwhile, someone really brutally murdered three little boys and they will never be caught. They can never be tried for these crimes because someone else is listed as guilty. But why would the state just let three murderers walk free unless they thought they would lose the new trial?  In Byer’s words, it is indeed Bullshit.

Of course the idea of a legal witch hunt is important to modern pagans.  The film makes a convincing case that Echols was convicted of being “weird”. Baldwin was convicted for being friends with the weird kid. Misskelley appears to be convicted because he was simple. This is disturbing for anyone, not just Pagans. One of the most disturbing segments of the documentary focused on Dr. Dale Griffis, the prosecutions so-called Occult Expert. During the trial, the defense attempted to discredit him but the judge was unconvinced – a mail order degree from an uncredited school was a perfectly fine way to declare expertise in a field. But the documentary shows Griffis’ office – and the hand drawn degree mounted on the wall and the drawers and drawers of vVHS tapes of him speaking on the subject. Turns out, a year before the murders, the local police had contacted him about Echols. Provided him with drawings and writings that Echols had done – including wizards holding “athames” and pentagrams. To some people, these appear to be angsty teenage doodlings. To Griffis, this was clearly Echol’s way to commune with the devil.  The now elderly “expert” shakily unfolds these drawings for the camera to discuss what they mean. It is clear that the police had their eyes on the teenager for a long time, and any reason to pin him down to something devastating was just waiting to rear its head. However, we  should also be cautious that we don’t paint Echols as a martyr. He had a troubled past, but it is an important distinction that a being a troubled teen does not mean a person has committed murder. We are fond as a country of sensationalizing murder trials. I appears we have been doing it since Salem.  And just look at Casey Anthony and Joran van der Sloot – guilt or innocence doesn’t actually mater as long as it makes for an interesting news story.

The documentary is moving. It is challenging. It is even in some ways inspiring. But even though the WM3 have walked out of jail, they are not entirely free. They are marked. They have a past. They will always have a cloud around them.  In this case, though, the documentary was not simply about documentation. After the first film, they raised enough doubts to encourage people to take action.  They made a second film to show the world what they discovered.  They made a third film to show how people were trying to work together to free these men. This is not only a social commentary – this was social action.