2012 Sundance Predictions: Jessica Oreck’s The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga

#72. The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga – Jessica Oreck

Jessica Oreck was at last year’s festival with her short film, Venus – but she broke onto the docu scene with Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo. She continues in the format but leaves the bugs at home with the fresh Cinereach funded docu with a unique title, The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga (which she discussed in our interview with her). This could either fit in the World Docu Comp or Spotlight Doc section.

Gist: This examines man’s interaction with the mythic woodlands of Eastern Europe, detailing the bloody history and complex psychologies that transformed the forest from a conceptually sinister space into a realm of precious security. Mushroom hunting provides a passageway into the history of the region and helps reveal the roles that woodlands play in the psychology and sociology of fear, imagination, and survival. For generations of Slavic peoples, the dark, dense woods were construed as foreboding and menacing, ruled by the witch Baba Yaga.

Producers: Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel
(IONCINEMA.com Preview Page // IMDB Link)