If we ask ourselves what a witch is, we quickly recall a literary or cinematographic image firmly established in the collective imagination: that of the woman characterised by a large nose flying on a broomstick, dressed in black and wearing a beaked hat.
It would seem that the term witch is locked into a single meaning. However, it is not difficult to appreciate that we are dealing with a concept that is very close to ambiguity and polysemy. To talk about witches is to talk about something more than the stereotyped and well-known fictional character, it is to look for new implications that identify the witch, in the feminine sense, with the healer or the midwife, with the woman socially classified as ugly and evil, with the fatal woman, with the rebellious and independent one?
Bearing in mind the existence of this broad map of witch types, it is not surprising that there are also many ways in which the figure of the witch is represented in the audiovisual sphere. Trying to reveal these models, with their corresponding analysis and reflections, is the starting point of this publication, which arises from a doctoral thesis defended at the University of Vigo in 2022.
¿Quién no es bruja? proposes a journey through the audiovisual witches of the first years of the 21st century. The aim is to prove that video art works with the Witch from a political or vindictive point of view, while in cinema and television the motivations are empty of content and governed by an essentially patriarchal value system.