Perpetuating the Witch-Hunt: Animals and Female Power in Film from Hillia Aho on Vimeo.
Perpetuating the Witch-Hunt: Animals and Female Power in Film
Hillia Aho, Occidental College
I created this video essay as an honors project, to accompany my senior comprehensives film at Occidental College. My film featured a gentle old spinster as the only onscreen character, a sort of subtle witch. It was important to me to write her as a witch, so my film would be a departure from the evil or at least grumpy film spinster archetype. I’ve been interested in witch history since taking a feminism class during my junior year of college. We read Silvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch, about the trials in Europe and how the transition to capitalism in England fed into the misogyny of the time period. The oppression of women’s autonomy, sexuality, and power is still very much a part of society and can be seen reflected in media, hidden in plain sight in the commonly occurring evil witch character. So, I was drawn to looking at witches in film, and examining how historical folklore and persecution of witchcraft are filtered through contemporary film witches.
I knew I wanted to take a fresh perspective on exploring representations of female power in media, since there is already scholarship on the subject, and even some video essays on film witches. After watching several witch films, I noticed a strong presence of animals, and was drawn to examining this relationship. The common witch-animal association is not invented by fictional witches in media; it evolved out of superstition from the time of the trials in Europe. I was interested in examining how this relationship is presented visually in film, and what liberties have been taken. How are relationships between witches and animals presented in contemporary and recent media? Are animals still commonly used to signify the devil as they were in medieval art depicting witchcraft? Do films that present the evil witch-animal narrative rely on the same folklore and imagery of early witch paranoia? How do they differ? Are the original religious, sexist connotations explored or admitted?
I came to the conclusion that animals are used in witch films in many of the same ways that they were used in folklore or art from times of witch-trials. The majority of witch-related media is at least somewhat misogynistic, and we need to change the way we represent powerful women, particularly in children’s films. As an example of using witch characters without perpetuating damaging witch tropes, I decided to include two short analyses of specific witch films to exemplify my points: The Witch and Maleficent. Both films rely heavily on the use of animals in magic, but use very different strategies in their portrayals of witchcraft. With my video essay, I wanted to provide tools for more active viewing of films featuring magical women. I think that the witch character can be such a powerful symbol for female strength, and I look forward to watching and possibly creating films that tap into the potential of the witch.
Author Biography
Hillia Aho is a recent graduate of Occidental College with a BA in Media Arts and Culture, and minors in Visual Art and Urban and Environmental Policy. Apart from film, her interests include painting, photography, and environmental sustainability, especially pertaining to food systems and farmed animals. In fall 2018, she will begin an MFA in film production at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Examples of her work in art and film can be found at hilliaaho.wordpress.com.
