A great-grandmother is the last person that one would except to run a dungeon, but Anonka – a charismatic witch and protagonist of this documentary – is anything but the typical great-grandmother. In January of 2000, she and her children opened up Anonka’s Witch Museum in the small and predominantly Christian town of Caro, Michigan. However, rather than simply being an educational tool exhibiting the history of witchcraft, the museum was dedicated to the atrocities perpetuated upon witches by the Christian church. Obviously, Anonka and her family received a less-than-warm welcome from the community in which they settled.
This documentary evolved over three years of director Robert St. Mary’s interviews with Anonka and her family, as well as their controversial court case surrounding a nativity scene set up on public property.
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One of the greatest advantages to the medium of film is that one can tell people things that they don’t necessarily want to hear. While a documentary is a little more straightforward than a dramatic film, it still has the opportunity to present facts and make its case.
There were some nice aspects to the film; the inclusion of a local news story that discusses the nativity scene and the court case was a nice touch; as well as the two interviews done with university professors regarding legal definitions. The movie began with some background on the town of Caro, which was quite useful for a non-local audience. However, partway through the documentary, I did find myself wondering why Anonka and her family had chosen such an obviously Christian town as a setting for a very obviously non-Christian museum. There were several interviews with non-Christians throughout the movie, so there seemed to be at least a marginal Pagan and/or Wiccan population in the area, but there had been no mention of it. If this is in fact true, something ought to have been said about it early on.
There was one aspect of the film that made me laugh; it began by showing several shots of open right hands, facing the camera palm-up. Now, for those “in the know”, this is a convention that we Michiganders (yes, I admittedly am one) use in order to show where our hometowns are located. I thought it was funny, but my editor – who hails from Washington State – did not get it at all. While a lot of the audience might get it, an equal part might not – I guess it’s a toss-up as to whether it should be included or not.
As far as the movie’s organization, however, I did notice some issues. It had a bit of a rambling quality to it; certain things were omitted (as mentioned above), while others seemed pointlessly included, such as a brief sequence of the town’s Pumpkin Fest parade. Also, when Anonka is explaining her background it was a little difficult to understand what she was saying. I wanted to learn more about her family, as well as understand how she got involved with witchcraft. In fact it is never confirmed or denied whether Anonka actually is a witch. There are a couple of b-roll shots of the museum that include a plaque that reads, “Our Motto: Harm No One”, i.e. the Wiccan Rede, as well as another image of the six-pointed star. So I made the assumption that they were Wiccan, as well. Most viewers, however, might not make that connection.
