All language subtitles for The.Witches.Of.Hollywood.2020.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG_English

- A witch is so many things

and seems to have been with
us from almost the beginning

of human history.

They embody every single
possible permutation

of what a woman
can be and the ways

in which women have been
celebrated and worshipped

and valorized, but also
demonized and misunderstood.

I think that the witch has
absolutely embodied all

of those things.

Hooked-nose
shrew, malicious seducer,

devilish beast,
potion connoisseur,
magical spell slinger,

satanic temptress of
unbridled sexuality,

seemingly harmless neighbor,
or caring housewife,

Halloween character, alone
or gathered in a coven,

the witch is a
fascinating character

that movies love to use.

- Hollywood definitely didn't
recreate the way of the witch.

The witch, as an iconic figure
of transgressive femininity

or transgressive
womanhood, if you will,

came way before Hollywood
ever invented itself.

It came long before film
was invented in the 1800s.

We have examples, easy examples,

such as Shakespeare's "Macbeth".

One of the most
iconic set of witches,

even though they weren't
always played by women,

they exemplify the crone
witch and the wild woman

of the woods, the Baba Yaga.

Then, you have biblical stories.

You have witches.

You have Goya's
paintings, which depict,

again, the satanic wild women
in the woods dancing naked.

Hollywood took all of that
and then capitalized on it.

Something that was
so iconographic

in American society already and
in European culture as well,

Western society.

A figure of great literary

and iconographic richness,

the witch was inspired
by historical reality.

It's official legal birth
certificate dates back to 1486

with the "Malleus Maleficarum",

a manual designed
to fight the devil,

written to be used by
inquisitors and magistrates.

- This was a witch
hunting manual,

and it specifically says that,

while both men and
women could be witches,

it's usually gonna be a woman
because she's usually weak.

She is extremely lustful.

She has ambition,

and she's gullible,

that Satan himself was
able to seduce her.

This has really
planted that seed

that women and the devil have
this intimate relationship

with each other.

Accusations,
tortures, trials, and pyres,

we're witnessing a cycle
of incredible violence

that will last for
more than two centuries

and will cause the death
of about 60,000 people

in the Western world alone.

- The witch is a figure drawn
equally from fact and fiction

and myth and history.

But most often, she's
depicted as a woman,

which is basically because the
majority of people executed

for witchcraft, at least in
the European witch trials,

were women, 80 to 85%.

So that's one
reason, in our minds,

especially in popular
culture and cinema,

we see the witch as a woman.

- There's definitely a
connection between the way

that witches are
depicted on-screen

and how women are
valued in society.

And in a way, it almost
is like a barometer

of how femininity and
feminine power is being

either uplifted or
stifled or suffocated

within the patriarchy.

Flying on
brooms in a black dress

and pointed hat, cinema leaves
its mark on the archetype

of the witch.

In silent films or
the first cartoons,

like "Felix the Cat"
and "Betty Boop".

We're able to recognize the
witch and its core symbols

in the blink of an eye.

But Disney's 1937 "Snow White",

the full-color,
animated feature renders

this image more complex.

- Disney's "Snow White and the
Seven dwarfs" is significant

because it has two
important witch figures,

one that's very recognizable
as a witch, which is the crone,

and then it has the very
first fantasy vamp witch.

She is a woman who is
out for her own power,

who is more interested in
her beauty and her sexuality

than in anything else,

and she's seeking to destroy
a young girl to achieve that.

So you have here a very
powerful, beautiful,

alluring woman as the
witch for the first time

in American film.

- What wouldst thou
know, my Queen?

- Magic mirror on the wall,
who is the fairest one of all?

- The entire production was
written, directed, created,

from scratch by men.

The original Grimm
story told the animators

that the queen had
to be beautiful,

but the animators then
needed to make this beauty,

this beautiful woman, fit with
the modern concept of beauty

of the 1930s so they
drew inspiration

from the women of Hollywood,
specifically the femme fatale.

They used Joan
Crawford, Greta Garbo,

the women who were similar
in narrative nature

to what this queen
was going to be:

a beautiful, sexy, alluring
woman who used her power,

who owned her power,
to bring down,

whether it was men or society.

So allegorically speaking,

it is a look at the woman
empowered, the sexualized woman,

the woman in her mid age
struggling with her beauty,

she works for herself,
who doesn't have a husband

or a father to control her
and tell her what to do.

And that's the case
for the Wicked Queen.

Her power is all her own, and
she's struggling to maintain

that beauty to keep her power

because her power is her beauty
and that's how she sees it.

And so she is going
forward to kill everything

that is in her way.

- Take her far into the forest.

Find her some secluded glade
where she can pick wildflowers.

- Yes, Your Majesty.

- And there, my faithful
huntsman, you will kill her!

- That is one of the first times

where the witch is more
than just one thing.

She's not just the beautiful,
kind of cold, mean queen

or the hag in the
woods, she's both.

And she has the ability
to sort of shift

between the two things
at her own will,

which I think is a new
and exciting thing.

- Look!
My hands!

My voice!
My voice.

- This really shows the
dichotomy of the two sides

of being a woman,

and either side you are
sometimes punished for.

If you're too beautiful,
if you're too alluring,

too seductive, if
you make people feel
too attracted to you,

well, you're evil.

On the other hand, if
you're ugly, if you're old,

if you are outside of the
bounds of what we think

of as proper or beautiful,
you're also evil.

So it really shows how, as a
woman, you're double bound.

You really can't win.

Two years
after "Snow White" success,

it's now
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's turn

to bring a witch to life.

This time in the flesh,
performed by Margaret Hamilton.

With the famous musical
film, "The Wizard of Oz",

Victor Fleming also
contributes to the depiction

of witches thanks to the
invention of Technicolor.

- When they were doing screen
tests of Margaret Hamilton

with her costume on,

which was an all-black
dress with a high neck

and a black hat, her skin
against the black costume

in this new Technicolor,

that made her head look like
it was floating above her gown.

And so you might think
it would have been easier

to change the
color of the dress,

but they didn't wanna take
away that iconic element.

So they changed the color of
her skin and made her green.

And ever since then, witches
are known to have green skin.

- Something with poison in it.

- Another interesting fact
about the "Wizard of Oz" is

that it's the first good
witch we have in cinema.

So that really broadens the
way people perceived witches

with Glinda the Good Witch

who is actually a help to
Dorothy in the beginning.

- Are you a good
witch or a bad witch?

- But I've already told
you I'm not a witch at all.

Witches are old and ugly.

What was that?

- The Munchkins.

They're loving
because I am a witch.

I'm Glinda, the
Witch of the North.

- You are?

Oh, I beg your pardon,

but I've never heard of
a beautiful witch before.

- Only bad witches are ugly.

- You have an interesting
visual juxtaposition

of the two witches,

which really reveals a
Christian-Judaic concept

of what's good and bad.

And you have the angel, or
the fairy, coming from above

that's good, the good witch,

and then you have the bad
witch who is wearing blacks

and has green skin and
comes from the ground

with orange smoke.

The Wicked Witch doesn't
care about her beauty.

She doesn't care about
maintaining her youth.

All she is seeking,
for whatever reason,

and we don't know, is
more magical power.

- Give me back my slippers!

I am the only one that
knows how to use them.

They're of no use to you.

Give them back to me.

Give them back!

- Keep tight inside of them.

Their magic must
be very powerful,

or she wouldn't
want them so badly.

You stay out of this, Glinda,
or I'll fix you as well!

- At the heart of the film
is this, sort of a battle,

if you will.

- Very well, I'll bide my time.

And as for you, my fine lady...

- This is all
really metaphorical.

It's all about
adolescents, right?

So Dorothy,

despite the fact that Judy
Garland was a grown woman

when she played this role,

she's portrayed
as a teenage girl.

And these ruby red slippers,

this color is symbolic
of, call it what you will,

female maturity, menstrual
blood, anger, passion,

all these things.

But we see that the color
red is really associated

with womanly power,

so the power of these
glittering, ruby red slippers,

In a way, it has to do with
this kind of womanly power

that Dorothy has
not yet come into.

She's doesn't understand it.

She doesn't know why the
house landed where it did

and why she gets the slippers,

and the fact that the
witch cannot access them.

And so we see again this
parallel between the young,

youthful, beautiful
Dorothy having this thing

that she didn't really
ask for just happens,

and then the elderly,
ugly, horrible woman,

and she cannot get
those ruby slippers.

- I think something
that's quite tragic

about the villainous witch is
she's often shown being killed

or being thwarted at
the end of the film.

And certainly, for moral
reasons, of course,

if she's done awful things,
she should be punished.

But I think there's a
much more subtle judgment

that's happening here,

that so often when we see
women who want things,

who have ambition,
who have power,

we're still uncomfortable
with that as a society.

And so there's some part
of society that still wants

to punish her, that still
wants to snuff out her flame,

if you will, and that's
really heartbreaking.

As World War II breaks out,

reality catches
up with Hollywood.

No more fairytales
and imaginary worlds.

Rene Clair's 1942 film,
"I Married a Witch",

brings the character of the
witch into the real world,

making Veronica Lake the
first witch next door.

- Jennifer, the witch, walks
around a normal American town,

which is what is portrayed here,

and she interacts with
your everyday people.

But she's a witch.

So the film really
asks the question,

well, what happens if a
witch lives in our society?

That is what lies in store

for the movie's male
lead Wallace Wooley,

played by Fredric March.

In the film, Wallace sees his
daily life turned upside down

by a witch set on
winning his love.

- Susie, where are you?

- Hello, darling.

I thought you'd never
get rid of that girl.

- What are you doing here?

- Waiting for you.

- But the hospital, the-

- I didn't like it there.

- How did you get here?

- You wouldn't believe
me if I told you.

- In "I Married a Witch",
Veronica lake is total glamazon.

She has blonde hair.

She's not dressed like
a wicked witch at all.

She's wearing furs and
sort of silk gowns,

and she is sort of the
height of seduction.

- Come here, Wally.

Am I not an attractive female?

- What's that got to do
with your being here?

- Am I?

- Yes, yes.

You're very pretty.

- There's also the
implication, perhaps,

with the way her
character is portrayed,

that every attractive woman
out there could be a witch.

There is some magic in
these women you desire,

that they have powers that
you might not be aware of

so be a little careful.

There is that sort of warning,

but it's not too
much of a danger.

But just be aware that every
woman is not what she seems.

The untrustworthiness of the
female character is really

at the heart of a lot of
these depictions of witches.

- She starts the film
wanting to seduce men,

and that's her game.

It's her fun.

She knows her body.

She knows how alluring she is.

And that's what she wants to do.

She has no other designs.

But then, she accidentally
takes her own love potion

and falls in love with the hero.

But in doing so,

she realizes that she
has to give up her power.

- I'm still a witch.

- No, my dear.

Your heart is so
full of human love

that I can no longer trust you.

Until you have resumed a
more spirit-like existence,

you shall be a mere mortal.

- I've remembered all the
spells you've taught me.

Out fire, by Rhadamanthus!

Out!

- She can't be the person
that she was born as.

She can't be who she
is and be in love

and have her man
and have marriage.

So she has to choose between
her own individual nature

and power and conformity to
society, to gender roles.

- So in this case,

the happy ending is the
witch losing her powers

and settling down and becoming
a good, happy housewife.

And so there's this
juxtaposition between
an empowered woman

with magical powers or a
married woman who's now living

under the control
of her husband.

- It ends with an adorable
little girl child running out

on a broom, and the
film gives you the idea

like here we go again.

We're gonna have to
train another woman

to be a proper woman.

- Jennifer, I told you never
to play with that broom.

- Why?

- I'm afraid we're going to
have trouble with her someday.

- Oh, that's impossible, I hope.

At that time,
witches had to fall in line,

like all other women.

It's out of the question to
encourage a rebellious spirit

when there's a war everyone
has to participate in.

Women worked the fields,
factories, and assembly lines,

keeping the machine running

while 10 million
men are mobilized.

But the men at war have opinions

on what's happening at home.

- If my wife works, people
think I can't support her.

- Oh, I don't mind
my wife working,

but who's gonna run my home?

- It's okay now, but
what about after the war?

The women will
have all the jobs.

After the war is over,

the women who've developed
a taste for independence

and autonomy must deal with
the loss of those freedoms

and can't emancipate
themselves so easily.

- There was no room for the
fantasy, for the imagination,

for wildness.

So the witch films
really portray that

in a way that other films
don't because the concept

of the witch, the concept
of having magic is,

allegorically speaking,
a transgressive,
feminine behavior.

The women that display
that, that are witches,

or believe they're witches,
have to be assimilated.

In "Bell, Book and Candle",

directed by Richard Quine,

Kim Novak portrays
a very modern witch.

Short hair with a
bohemian attitude,

she serves as a vision of
independence but also boredom.

- Same old thing day after
day, same old people.

Oh, I know I'm feeling sorry
for myself, but it's true.

- Gillian Holroyd, who
is the main character,

is a witch who, unlike Jennifer
from the earlier movie,

doesn't want to be a witch.

She wants to be normal.

She wants to
celebrate Christmas.

She wants to cry.

Gillian is purposely making
efforts to find a way

to give up being a witch.

- I wish I could
just spend some time

with some everyday
people for a change.

- You wouldn't like it, darling.

So ordinary and humdrum.

- Yes, I suppose so.

It might be pleasant to be
humdrum once in a while.

- Perhaps you'd like to be
humdrum with that Mr. Henderson?

- I wouldn't mind.

- The most iconic
relationship in the film is

between Gillian and
her cat, Pyewacket.

She does most of her
magic with the cat.

And it sort of, perhaps,

shows this link between
femininity and animality,

and this sort of untamed nature

that's within her as a witch.

So there are these
shots really close up

of both of the their eyes
bewitching Jimmy Stewart.

And then, the cats purr
gets louder and louder,

and then suddenly he's hooked.

- In this narrative,
at this time,

for a woman to have marriage
and love and a family,

which is what we're told we're
desired and what should be,

you have to give up your
transgressive nature.

You have to give up
your personal power.

And allegorically speaking,
that's witchcraft and magic.

- Tears, real tears.

- It's true that old
wives' tale, it's true.

That's why Pyewacket ran away.

- You've lost your powers.

- I've fallen in love.

- At that point in history,

women were being encouraged
to leave those jobs

that they had taken over
during World War II,

when men were at war, and go
back to the domestic sphere.

And so in that film,

she leaves her business
and becomes a housewife.

So it's clearly a directive
that you will be happier

if you leave those trappings
of maternity behind

and go back to the
arms of your children.

During the economic
boom that followed the end

of World War II,

women were sold a
new American dream

that echoed the rise
of mass consumerism,

a domestic life of
marriage and motherhood.

- What becomes important
after war is repopulation.

Women are now suddenly relegated

back to being
baby-making machines.

A woman is expected
to look gorgeous

and be perfectly
quaffed and full makeup

and have a pitcher of
martinis ready for the husband

when he comes home
from the office

and these perfect
little children.

And my gosh, that's
no life for anyone.

So women obviously wanted more.

And then, I think
we start to see,

in some of the narratives
about witches is at the time,

there's this, sort of an ironic,

maybe tongue-in-cheek sort
of nod to the drudgery

of domestic life.

With "Bewitched" in 1964,

it's television's turn
to portray the witch.

Contrary to what the
opening credits might imply,

it's not an animated series,

but a comedy that places the
witch in a very domestic world.

In many ways, Samantha
represents the
perfect housewife,

almost at least.

Here you see the average,

normal, suburban housewife

in one of her daily
routine tasks,

preparing breakfast
for her husband.

- She is playing
the traditional role

of mother and housemaker,

and she tries really hard
the entire series to do that

and to do it without her magic.

It never works.

So the show really is discussing

whether a woman can actually
give up her power or not.

Even if she wants to, she can't.

Of course,

sometimes there are problems,

especially if your husband
expects breakfast ready

before he goes to work.

But that's no problem

for the average, normal,
suburban housewife

if she happens to be a witch.

- Hi, honey.

But doesn't that look good?

- So we have a
progressive concept

that a woman can
actually maintain her
power, be who she is,

but also have a love
interest, a husband, children.

She can be a wife and a
homemaker as well as herself.

And so it is a very interesting
show that sits at that point

between the way it was and
the way it became after.

- Another way "Bewitched"
subverts the 1950's family model

is by portraying Samantha
as totally on-the-ball,

in control of everything
with her superpowers

and her husband, Darrin,
being completely bumbling

and kind of a fool.

She bests him at every turn,

and that's clearly a dig

at the modern
patriarchal structure,

but not so much so that
it's really overturning

or upsetting anyone.

- Samantha's mother, Endora,

and Endora's, of
course, the great heroes

of modern witches with
her flaming red hair

and her extremely colorful
caftans and outfits,

and she's constantly
putting down her son-in-law

and constantly wondering why
her daughter has not sort

of done better for herself.

If you're a witch, you could
have anything you want.

Why do you choose this?

- I love you the way you are.

I love everything about you.

That's the way I like
to hear you talk.

Why don't you come on over here?

Hmm, it's a wonderful
perfume you're wearing.

- "Bewitched" premieres a year

after Betty Friedan's
"The Feminine Mystique"
was published.

So "The Feminine Mystique"
is really talking

about the so-called
problem that has no name,

which was afflicting all kinds

of white, middle-class
housewives

who were realizing that their
lives were not fulfilled

by cooking and cleaning
and having children,

and this really galvanized the
women's liberation movement

at the time.

At the end of the 1960s,

the model of the
patriarchy shatters.

Women take to the streets
to make their voices heard,

campaigning for
equality and the freedom

to make their own choices
about their bodies.

- Well, the main command
of course is equal rights,

equal rights to have a job,

to have respect and not be
viewed as a piece of meat.

In New York City,

feminists from the
WITCH group, an acronym

for Women's International
Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell,

reappropriate the image
of the witch as a way

to denounce the link between
patriarchy and capitalism.

In 1972, the Supreme
Court extends the right

to contraception, to
unmarried couples,

and a year later,
legalizes abortion.

- The idea that the
pill allowed women

to control their
reproductive freedom

and their reproductive function
was terrifying to people.

If a woman can have sex
without getting pregnant,

what else might she
do with her life?

She might get a job.

She might have a career.

She might become an artist.

We start to see all the
exciting possibilities for women

in that women's movement of
the 1960s, but we also start

to see a very, very
interesting parallel portrayal

of the witch in Hollywood as
this unspeakably evil figure

and where we really see
this expressed most potently

and most popularly,
to the point where...

This was a portrayal

that absolutely shifted the
entire cultural viewpoint

of what a witch was.

And that is the 1968
film "Rosemary's Baby".

In Roman Polanski's
film, "Rosemary's Baby",

the innocent Rosemary,
played by Mia Farrow,

is used by her
sorceress neighbors

to carry the devil's child.

On a Sabbath,

the drugged young woman is
raped by the demon in a scene

that hovers somewhere between
reality and a nightmare.

The film then borrows many
iconographic elements associated

with a cultism and depicts
witchcraft in close proximity

to Satanism.

- She's awake, she sees.

- She don't see.

As long as she ate the mouse,
she can't see nor hear.

She's like dead.
Now sing.

- 1968 was the end of the
production code in Hollywood.

This moral code,

which was attempting
to protect audiences

from overt sexuality
and alluring evil,

prevented the witch
from being portrayed

within the horror genre.

So essentially, when
the code was gone,

the field was wide open for
the witch as a scary figure,

which she already was, to
enter into the horror film.

With the
birth of the porn industry,

low-budget feature films
make the witch a character

that is as terrifying
as it is erotic.

At the same time,

the American public
gets access to films

by the Italian
masters of the genre,

such as "Black
Sunday" by Mario Bava

or the cult movie,
"Suspiria" by Dario Argento.

- We have more nudity and
more explicit sexuality

and more blood,

and the site of the female body
is often this site of danger

and pollution and
trauma and fear,

of course, all from a
patriarchal perspective.

The figure of the witch
is the monstrous feminine

who represents ideas
of castration anxiety

and just fear of
reproductive processes,

and you have a lot of
that in these films.

In 1976, with "Carrie",

Brian de Palma rides this wave

and creates the most
famous teenage witch.

The famous opening scene
filmed in the style

of soft porn shows the young
Carrie getting her period

for the first time.

- A very popular trope
is the teen witch.

The film "Carrie" is a
great example of this.

This is a power that emerges

as soon as her first
menstruation begins.

Here we have a young
woman who suddenly comes

into her powers and
often, these powers,

they switch on overnight and
they cause absolute mayhem.

And this is an obvious
metaphor for puberty,

for female sexuality
suddenly turning on,

and for, I think, people's
fear of teen sexuality,

especially when it
comes to young women.

- This idea that suddenly
your body is capable

of creating life,

probably one of the most
profound acts of magic

that the human
body is capable of.

Let's face it.

And that is exactly
why, for millennia,

men have been afraid of women.

If you go back to the 1500s,

Kramer and Sprenger, the
"Malleus Maleficarum",

the "Hammer of Witches",
the witch hunters guide,

all witchcraft stems
from carnal desire,

which is in women insatiable.

So the fact that women
like sex is the problem.

The fact that women are
sexual beings means we need

to kill them, but first
let's torture them.

In 1978, "Hungry Wives",

directed by George Romero,
is re-released on screens

under the title
"Season of the Witch"

in order to attract
a wider audience.

Even though the master of
horror films is faithful

to the genre's tropes,

the script shows a new
original point of view.

- In the beginning
of "Hungry Wives",

you see this housewife
having dreams of being led

around in a leash
by her husband,

being put in a literal cage,

and it's very obvious symbolism

to show just how trapped
she feels by her marriage

and by patriarchy in general.

So it's from that moment
that we know she has

to find a way out,

and her way out is
learning about witchcraft

and finding a new
community of women.

And she does that and
completely changes her life.

And it's a very feminist
film, I would say,

or it's the absolute
horror for men to watch.

So in the end, this housewife,

who's sort of depressed
about her life,

her children are grown up

and her husband
totally ignores her.

He doesn't treat her
very well at all.

She killed her husband,

and she's much happier

and much more alive and vibrant.

In the last scene of the movie,

she's just completely
transformed as a person

and so empowered
from the first scene

where she's just sort
of a shell of a person.

And so, yes, her
husband had to die

in service of her
growth, but in a way,

it's sort of paralleling
death of patriarchy

to liberate all women, in a way.

By basing his
film on real magical texts,

George Romero
depicts the practice

of witchcraft realistically.

For the first time,

the rituals and
invocations shown on-screen

are truer than life.

- Blade of steel,

I conjure thee to cause
all things as named by me.

Blade of steel, I conjure
thee to prevent such things

as named by me.

- Based in the '70s,

we have an almost voyeuristic
look into what the witch is,

what the witch does.

What does the witch do when
she meets with her coven?

Do they drink from chalices?

Do they tie their
hands together?

What sort of strange
rituals are there?

And I think that that
creates a sort of mystery

for the viewer, not only
because they wanna figure out,

of course, it's
fiction, it's on-screen.

It might say that it's
inspired by actual rites

that happen,

but it's really just that
fascination of being able

to see what someone else can do

and almost asking yourself
about what are the boundaries

of what I would want to do?

During the
counterculture movement

of the 1970s, witchcraft
comes out of the shadows

and establishes itself
in the mainstream.

Specialty stores, like Magical
Child in New York City,

sell powders, herbs,
and other accessories

to practice magic.

Numerous esoteric
publications also come

to see the light of day,
as well as literary works

that link feminism and
nature to witchcraft,

such as the work of
StarHawk and Margot Adler.

However, witchcraft has
nothing to do with Satanism.

Sybil Leek, a star
among the witches

of the '70s clarifies
this by appearing

on a paranormal TV show

called "The Amazing
World of Kreskin".

- Witchcraft, do I gather,

and because it's been
distorted is not dealing

with Satanism?

- No.

- Because we're told
this, or implied this,

by certain so-called leaders.

- Yes, there's been bad
publicity in the Middle Ages.

And of course, a terrible
concept that has come through

because witchcraft
was taken underground.

And when anything becomes
secret and goes underground,

a mystique is built up about
it and legend is added to it

and added to it.

And the things that
we don't understand

or don't even take the trouble

to understand are the
things we're afraid of.

- That's very true.

We usually add on a certain
mysticism and an occult,

which is hidden too.

When we come back-

- So people were
definitely aware

that there was a real type of
witchcraft that was happening.

The unfortunate thing is that,

after the huge occult
boom of the '60s and '70s

and lots of horror films and
lots of stories about witches

and all of that, Ronald
Reagan was elected in 1980.

And at that time, we also
see the rise of something

in the United States
called the moral majority.

There started to be this belief

that America had lost its way.

And the way that this was
sort of manifesting was

that women were no longer at
home raising children anymore,

this kind of thing.

That was one of these
permutations of the evil

that had overtaken America.

This, in part, did lead
to the Satanic Panic,

this sort of demonization
of anyone doing anything

to do with the occult.

From trendy
subject worthy of the cover

of "Time" magazine, a occultism
is eventually relegated

to wild rumors and trivia.

What started out as paranoia

from fundamentalist
Christian circles will result

in mass hysteria covered
across all media.

In the late '80s,

the fear of satanic
witchcraft is so widespread

that Hollywood
decides to join in.

Using John Updike's
popular novel as its basis,

"The Witches of Eastwick"
is released in 1987

as a first blockbuster
of its kind.

With George Miller
behind the camera

and Susan Sarandon, Cher, and
Michelle Pfeiffer as leads,

the witch takes the stage once
more as a respectable figure.

- They aren't witches
to begin with.

They are just
regular, typical women

who are unhappy
with their lives,

and their solution is to have
girls nights and wish for men.

And that is how they wind
up conjuring the devil,

'cause the man they
conjure is Satan.

He seduces them.

And when they give
way to his seduction,

they become
empowered with magic,

which is a traditional motif
found in witch stories,

which is make a
pact with the devil.

They have sex with the
devil, and through that,

that's how they earn their power

and they become more
beautiful and more sexy.

And that is a very
typical story.

- So "The Witches of Eastwick"

is a fantastically sex-positive
movie, in my opinion,

because it sort of
deconstructs monogamy,

and it shows the power
of female friendship

at the same time,

and it's sort of destroys the
idea that women have to be

in conflict for male
resources, for male partners.

- And so it seems, at the end,

they actually use their
power that was given to them

to destroy the devil,
and we all cheer.

Okay, they finally got
their autonomy back,

and they each have a child.

They have new lives.

They retain the big mansion
that they were living in,

and everybody's cheering.

But the very last scene,

the babies go and crawl
over to the TV screens,

and there's the devil.

They didn't get rid of him.

He's still watching.

So did they really get
rid of their autonomy?

Have they really won?

The movie has
progressive elements,

but it really doesn't tell
the story of the witch

as a powerful, autonomous woman

that we might suspect it would.

In 1996, "The Craft",

directed by Andrew Fleming,
makes the teen witch trendy.

By practicing witchcraft,

Sarah, Nancy, Bonnie, and
Rochelle go from mocked

and insecure teenagers to sexy
and confident young women.

- I think "The Craft" is one
of the most essential sort

of shifting points when it comes

to the depiction of
the witch on-screen.

One of the reasons is

because it's also a
coming-of-age story.

It's about friendship,
sisterhood, the coven community.

It's sort of more a
spectrum of motivations

of why these young
women turn to witchcraft

and how they wield their power.

- "The Craft" sits
at the boundary

because it portrays
witchcraft as both evil

and also beautiful and natural.

And one of the most beautiful
scenes we see is them sitting

around outside,
there's four of them,

and they perform a
ritual where they are,

essentially,
empowering themselves,

making wishes and bonding.

And in that scene, the
camera circles around them.

And as the spell is enacted,

the trees blow and
butterflies fly,

and it's a very peaceful
scene, very New Age.

And the girls are happy.

And this creates the
allure of witchcraft

as something that is beautiful,

something that comes
from the spirit,

something that we all
would wanna take a part in

- So for the first time
you have a portrayal

of teenage girls finding
witchcraft on their own,

finding it to be
empowering and fun

and, oh, this is how we can
get back at those bullies

and this is how we
can feel beautiful

when people have always
told us we're ugly,

and this is how I can
deal with my grief,

and this is how I can deal
with my self-loathing,

and all these very
positive messages.

We see girls who see this
movie and start to relate

to all the things that these
teenagers are going through.

Wow, if you're a young
African-American girl, wow,

I've been bullied and called
names by these racist bitches

in my school too.

- Oh, God, look, there is
a pubic hair in my brush.

Oh, no, wait, wait.

That's just one of Rochelle's
little nappy hairs.

- I think that it's
one of the first times

where a black witch
was using her power

for something that is just as
opposed to it being something

that was in service
to a white witch

or some other individual
in her community

who had more agency than her.

By targeting her
bully with a vengeful spell

on her hair, Rochelle
punishes her for her sin.

- Oh, my god.

- In truth, witchcraft becomes
more about true empowerment

than an act of vengeance.

- She is fighting
racism in the film,

and we have not ever discussed
issues of race and class

and culture within witchcraft.

It's usually a sort of
one Anglo-European angle

that witches are giving us

throughout most of
the 20th century.

So in that sense,

"The Craft" is very radical
and really changes the idea

of who can be a witch
and who is a witch,

because historically,
there are witch figures

in every single culture
around the world.

- The use of the black
witch's power was always

in service to whiteness.

It was always in service to
either an ailment, a mystery,

or helping give the
white person more agency

or help them figure
out something that
they needed to do.

So it was always a way of
uplifting or supporting

rather than in
service to itself.

And you never really got to see
what those practitioners did

on their own or how they
came to their magic.

Rochelle opened up a
whole new possibility

of what the black witch
could be in the mainstream.

So "The Craft" was something
that kind of opened things up,

not only for adolescent
female agency,

but also for more
intersectional perspective

of what witchcraft can be.

With the success of "The Craft",

television wastes no time
applying this formula

in other ways.

"Sabrina the Teenage
Witch", "Charmed",

"Buffy the Vampire
Slayer" with Willow,

the first queer witch on-screen.

One season follows the next,

and these series accompany
teenagers through the mid 2000s.

That's when cinema picks
up the ball once more

by adapting "Harry Potter",

the literary phenomenon
by author J.K. Rowling.

- In the "Harry Potter" series,

Hermione Granger is the
most iconic young witch.

And I think what's
most interesting

about her is how
studious she is.

And she always has
her head in a book,

looking up new spells

and sort of saving
the boys around her.

And so Hermione makes
witchcraft into really a craft,

a practice, that you have to
really dedicate yourself to.

She's not a vamp, she's not a
crone, she's not a temptress.

She's sort of this other
kind of nerd witch, in a way,

this sort of fantastic
new character.

- She's a really great example

of what I hope young women
are getting to turn into,

which is people who are
valued for their intelligence

and their capability
and compassion.

- Stop, stop, stop, stop.

You're going to take
someone's eye out.

Besides, you're saying it wrong.

It's Levi-osa, not Levio-sar.

- You do it then if
you're so clever.

Go on, go on!

- Wingardium Leviosa.

- Oh, well done!

See here, everyone.

Ms. Granger's done it!

In 2014, another
story by a woman emerges.

This time, it's "Maleficent",

scripted by Linda Woolverton.

She will revolutionize
the portrayal of the witch

by making Maleficent, the evil
witch from "Sleeping Beauty",

the main character
of her own tale.

- Disney Radically revitalized
the witch archetype

with 2014's "Maleficent".

Maleficent, unlike the original
"Sleeping Beauty" Maleficent

made decades before,

is no longer purely vindictive
for vindictiveness' sake.

She is not jealous
of a young baby

so enacts a revenge
because of that.

She has been
traumatized and abused

and is overcoming her past.

- She begins as
a good character,

a good fairy, wearing browns.

She has giant beautiful wings.

She even flies up to
the sky in the sun

and you see her
almost like an angel.

But then, during
the iconic scene,

where the wings are cut off
of her, almost in a rape,

she is left there
without her wings

and she becomes, allegorically
speaking, a fallen angel.

And at that point is
when Maleficent turns

from being this goodly creature
into this dark witch figure.

And she becomes this
after being violated,

which is one of the many
stories of the witch,

is the witch is
sometimes portrayed,

especially during
this later period,

as being a woman who
has been scorned,

a woman that has been
oppressed and is reacting back.

So she becomes this
transgressive woman

and fights against the
patriarchy society, et cetera.

This is the new
story of the witch.

- The most powerful
part about "Maleficent"

in this film is that true
love is between two women

and true love's kiss
to break the spell,

a platonic kiss
between two women,

totally subverting the original
"Sleeping Beauty" story.

So these are women saving women,

and it's a really powerful tale
of redemption in that sense

and overcoming trauma and
really rewriting the story

of the witch and who
the witch can be.

- Hello, godmother.

- Hello, Beastie.

- For Disney to shift
the focus to Maleficent,

I think is definitely in
the spirit of the witch sort

of bubbling back to the
surface in pop culture.

Because I think that's also
on the heels of "Wicked"

and thinking about the stories
that haven't been told.

And instead of seeing the
witch as the villainous

or the monster or the
thing to be feared,

of looking for the
witch's humanity

and bringing that
to the forefront.

Since "Maleficent",

the witch has continued to
invade screens everywhere.

Independent films,
like "The Witch"

and "The Love Witch"
continue to contribute

to this new modern
representation.

In television shows,

she finally breaks out of
the box via the character

of Queenie in "American
Horror Story: Coven".

- You didn't wanna
join us at first.

- I grew up on white
girl shit like "Charmed"

and Sabrina, the
teenage cracker.

I didn't know that there
even were black witches.

As it turns out, I'm
an heir to Tituba.

She was a house slave in Salem.

She was the first to be
accused of witchcraft.

So technically, I'm
part of your tribe.

From the chilling
adventures of "Sabrina"

and its diverse cast to
the reboot of "Charmed"

with the Latina
Halliwell sisters,

witches on-screen
continue to evolve.

- The witch is a sort of
every woman, every person sort

of figure, the ultimate radical,
the ultimate revolutionary.

She rebels against all
oppressive systems of power

in her own way.

- We're going through this time

of incredible upheaval when
it comes to gender dynamics,

when it comes to the
messages that we're getting

from the people in
charge right now,

and there's a wonderful,
I think, backlash

to these oppressive forces.

We're seeing the women's march.

We're seeing the Me Too
movement and Time's Up.

- We will not be silenced!

- This is what
democracy looks like.

- Show me how
America looks like!

- This is how
America looks like!

- And the witch is a perfect
icon who goes hand in hand

with these movements,

because the witch
doesn't take any crap

and she doesn't
apologize for her power.

She also is a figure
who is subversive

of those patriarchal forces

and she doesn't
apologize for it.

And so we've taken this
figure that was linked

with female shame,

and we've turned her into
a figure of shamelessness,

and we need that right now.