Perceptions from a Modern Witch Hunt: The Making of a She-Devil (2022)

Perceptions from a Modern Witch Hunt: The Making of a She-Devil is a social documentary about a Witch Hunt that took place in 2017, in Bardhaman district of West Bengal, India. The incident was atypical, since it took place after a new shrine was established in Gopikantapur for exclusive ceremonies by the tribal section of the village. During frenzied celebration after the ceremony, Tribal women claimed possessions by the new Goddess and professed Jayanti Mudi, a fellow tribal resident, to be a witch. Consequently she was brutally tortured. Eventually Jayanti informed the police, which led to a government awareness program against Witch Hunts. In spite of the intervention, Jayanti remains pariah in the village to this date. The narrative is structured through multiple perspectives of the victim, accusers, neutral observers and state actors. Through them, transpire layers of perceptual realities where class, caste and gender relations of inert community life, trickle down modernity, and the media culture that perpetuate such phenomenon are intertwined.