Gerald Gardner : How to Make a Bad Documentary

Belief in magic is deeply rooted in human society. Even if you aren’t spiritual, you probably participate in rituals which are rooted in some level of supernatural belief; maybe you blow out birthday candles, or you’re afraid of what might happen if you break a mirror. Still, most people don’t really believe in magic - at least, not yet. Paganism, including Wicca, is currently on the rise in many countries, thanks in large part to a man named Gerald Gardner, the focus of the documentary A Very British Witchcraft. As interesting as the documentary is, however, it’s ultimately a failure as it seems far too in love with its subject matter, causing it to gloss over some of the more problematic aspects of Wicca’s story.

While there is no definitive count of how many people currently identify as pagan, the number is thought to be at least 1.5 million in the US alone compared to an estimated 1 million in 2008. It might be somewhat surprising, then, to learn that in the US and UK, the belief system was only really revived in the 1940s. To understand why Wicca has experienced such exploding growth, it’s important to understand Gardner himself first. As a child, he was sent away from his wealthy family due to persistent illness. While he had a nanny to care for him, he never had much formal education and is said to have learned mostly on his own. Later, he worked as a colonial civil servant, where he grew interested in the local cultures and especially their spiritual practices, an interest which he would bring back to England in hopes of developing a British occult practice.

Gardner was not the only spiritualist of his time, however - while declaring oneself to be a witch was technically illegal at the time due to the Witchcraft Act, many still performed seances and there were secret, esoteric societies such as the Freemasons. A Very British Witchcraft discusses how Gardner started out as a member of these societies, learning from them. Ultimately, though, he turned to historical records to develop his own magic system based on the beliefs and practices of historical Britons, after which he started aggressively promoting his work in an effort to share his beliefs with others and create a self-sustaining religion even after he had passed.

The film makes it clear that Gardner did truly believe in what he was doing, even claiming that he performed a ritual with other witches to prevent a Nazi invasion of Britain. The spell proved so powerful that he even believed it later led to the deaths of some of the witches involved - though given the fact that those who cast it with him were elderly people who stayed out exhausting themselves on a cold night, there might be another, less supernatural explanation. Given how unbelievable the story is, though, it’s hard to believe that Gardner would share it just for attention, as any attention was sure to be negative. The documentary also features current practitioners of Wicca and other pagan faiths are also shown, discussing the positive impact Wicca had on their lives and their admiration for Gardner and his bravery in promoting witchcraft during a time when there was significant social stigma against it.

It’s a nice story, and the documentary tells it well. The issue is, however, that the film avoids some less savoury aspects of the tale and paints a rather misleading picture of the truth. My biggest issue with the version of history that the film presents is the image of Gardner as the father of witchcraft as it’s practised today. As the documentary is about him and his religion, it’s normal that he be aggrandised to a certain extent, but in doing so the documentary ignores the spiritual practices of countless cultures across the world, including those which inspired Gardner in the first place. How Gardner came in contact with those cultures is largely glossed over as well. The film’s greatest criticism of Gardner is his unconventional hobbies, with tongue-in-cheek mentions of how he was a nudist and had a private darkroom, presumably for developing photos of said nudist events. The fact that he was a colonialist is simply mentioned without any development on how this might have affected Wicca and his approach to it, let alone the ethics of this practice.

Further related to the imperialist tendencies of Gardner and his nationalistic desire to revive witchcraft which was native to Britain is the fact that Wicca has often been criticised for its lack of historical backing. While he claimed to be basing Wicca on historical witchcraft in the UK, this is widely considered to be at least an exaggeration of the truth if not an outright fabrication of it. While this is not unique to Wicca, nor is it surprising given Gardner’s lack of formal schooling, it’s irritating that A Very British Witchcraft portrays Wicca as being thoroughly and accurately researched without any nuance.

Altogether, A Very British Witchcraft is entertaining enough, but it comes off like a Wikipedia article written by Gardner’s biggest fan rather than a documentary which seeks to examine a topic through a unique lens. Wicca and paganism in general is fascinating, especially its rise. Had the documentary looked into its origins with a more critical lens, or if it examined why it's becoming more popular today (which, based on the features of the religion as presented in the documentary, is likely a combination of nationalism and environmentalism), it would have been much a much more interesting watch. As it stands, though, A Very British Witchcraft is nothing more than an unconvincing love letter to Gardner. If you don't believe me, watch it yourself.