Shona's analysis

Documentary Analysis :Dispatches-return to Africa’s witch children

This documentary is part of the channel 4 dispatches series which highlights social and political problems throughout the world. This is a follow up documentary which returns to Africa where children are being tortured, outcasted and even killed with the belief that they are possessed by witches. The documentary starts by briefly recapping what happened during the first documentary and how their footage shocked the world and caused a change in African law, in order to do this newspaper clippings and headlines are shown using insert shots. It revisits the people interviewed in the first series, the people who helped pass the child protection laws and also discovers that child witch condemning is still occurring in Africa.

The programme primarily follows two main characters whom are at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of the topic the documentary is focused on. Firstly there is the charity worker Gary Foxcroft who has devoted his life to save the children from being condemned as witches and established the first shelter for them and conversely there is Africa’s leading evangelist who makes a living through establishing which children are so called witches and conducting exorcisms in order to ‘save’ them. There are also interviews from the children themselves and other people involved in both the condemnation and the saving of the children.

The interviews and narration used throughout the programme are conducted by an unseen voice this technique is known as vox pops. In this situation this method is quite effective as it means the viewers attention is not focused on a presenter or persona who is illustrating the situation but it is focused on the issues and situations at hand. Statistics are used by the narrator in order to portray the vast amount of torture that is occurring.

Insert shots of photographs of children who have been tortures and murdered under the belief that they are witches, these insert shots are impactive due to their horrific nature. Numerous other shots are used throughout the film, most notably is the establishing shot in order to show a change of scenery and the kind of place this is happening in. Horrific images of the torture methods used on the children as well as the disturbing exorcisms mean this programme is not created for young viewers and is recommended for people aged over 16, this helps effectively portray the seriousness of the issue as it is hard to imagine without actually seeing it.

The film is filmed using all natural lighting and only a small amount of sound is used in the form of haunting music during the point where the children’s injuries are being shown, this music is upsetting and adds to the emotion of the viewers whilst seeing these images.