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“Women Like Gail are Often Vilified in the Media as Cold-Blooded Killers and Even Monsters”: Jessica Earnshaw on her SXSW-Debuting Baby Doe
Baby Doe Baby Doe is the latest from Jessica Earnshaw, whose Jacinta won the Albert Maysles Best New Documentary Director Award at Tribeca 2020. While that film followed a mother-daughter relationship bound up in drugs, incarceration and generational trauma, Baby Doe stars a happily married mother and grandmother who likely never even smoked a cigarette or garnered a speeding ticket. Indeed, Gail Ritchey was an unassuming conservative Christian living in rural Ohio until the magic of DNA matched the fifty-something to “Geauga’s Child,” a newborn left abandoned in the woods three decades ago. Which soon led to an arrest for murder (though Ritchey claims the baby was stillborn), a close-knit family’s unimaginable anguish, and one overriding question: How can a young woman be so traumatized by an unwanted pregnancy that she refuses to believe she’s even carrying? Until nine months later denial clashes with inescapable reality.
The day of the film’s SXSW premiere (March 7th) Filmmaker caught up with Earnshaw to learn all about what psychologists term “pregnancy denial,” and embedding with a traumatized family still living its consequences.
Filmmaker: So how did this doc originate? How exactly did you find yourself meeting with Gail in her attorney’s office in the spring of 2021?
Earnshaw: In 2020, I became interested in making a documentary about pregnancy denial after a friend shared an article in Elle magazine about Emile Weaver. Emile was an Ohio college student convicted of murder in 2016 for killing her baby after she gave birth alone in the bathroom of her sorority house; she was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. As I looked deeper into Emile’s case, I was struck by the complexity of her story, particularly Emile’s insistence that she was in deep denial about being pregnant and hadn’t intended to harm her baby.
I reached out to Emile and her attorneys and began documenting their long struggle to appeal Emile’s incredibly harsh sentence, which remains a small but important part of the film. At the same time, my producers and I were tracking new cases and looking more broadly at the phenomenon of pregnancy denial as it intersects with the criminal justice system. We saw that police around the country were using a new DNA technology — forensic genealogy — to identify and arrest middle-aged and even elderly women for cases identical to Emile’s, many decades after the fact.
When we came across Gail’s case, I reached out through her attorneys and set up a meeting. It went extremely well. Not long after that I began shooting intensely with Gail, her family, and her attorneys.
Filmmaker: How did you gain the trust of Gail and her family and retain that trust through some truly difficult moments? Were boundaries set from the start? What were those discussions like?
Earnshaw: When I first met Gail and Mark, I was very open with them about what I was hoping to achieve in filming their story. I asked the family if I could embed in their lives and shoot everything that was happening leading up to the trial, during, and after. I had several lengthy conversations with them about this before I started to film. It was important to Gail and Mark that their kids and other family members were okay with it, so I spent time talking through my intentions with them as well.
For most of my filming with Gail and the family I worked alone or with one other cinematographer, with the small scale of the production helping to create a low-pressure atmosphere. Gail was relaxed and open with me over the many months I spent with her, which proved essential as events in her life grew more intense and the film went to some difficult and unexpected places. Gail and Mark saw the film as a chance to present their side of the story, but they also expressed how they felt a documentary might make a terrible situation in their own lives into something that helped others.
Filmmaker: What were some of the biggest challenges you faced? Were there specific lessons that you learned while working on your 2020 debut feature Jacinta (and with Jacinta) that you were able to apply to this latest?
Earnshaw: Navigating the complexities of Baby Doe‘s subject matter was a major challenge. In particular my editors and I really wrestled with how to explain the psychology of pregnancy denial, which is at the core of Gail’s case, without taking the viewer too much out of the moment.
With Jacinta, which dealt with addiction and multigenerational trauma, I learned how crucial it was to get as close to Jacinta and her family as possible in order to really understand their experiences. That was a lesson I definitely applied to Baby Doe.
Jacinta is incredibly self-reflective and has a gift for sharing even some of the darkest episodes from her past. Gail was very different than Jacinta in that she had such a hard time articulating her experience, to the point she was almost a mystery to herself. Accessing some of the deeper truths of Gail’s story was difficult and took some time.
Filmmaker: It struck me that Jacinta similarly explored the complexities of motherhood — and how the judicial system is ill-equipped to handle complexities, whether it’s generational addiction or pregnancy denial. So what draws you to these stories?
Earnshaw: Jacinta’s and Gail’s stories are very different in many respects, but on a thematic level they share a lot of similarities. In particular, they both present a challenging perspective on motherhood and what makes for a good mother. In general, as a filmmaker I find myself drawn towards more intimate psychological stories that function almost like character studies.
Filmmaker: Have all the participants seen the final cut? What’s been the various reactions and ultimate hopes for the film?
Earnshaw: All the participants have seen the film. The reactions have been incredibly positive. Gail thought it was beautiful and accurate to her experience, and she hoped the film would help other women in her position. Mark and her children have all watched the film a few times, and it’s created a lot of dialogue within the family about the importance of trust and communication.
Women like Gail are often vilified in the media as cold-blooded killers and even monsters. She is currently serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole in 15 years. I think Gail and her family’s ultimate hope is that by showing the complexity and ambiguity of her case, and her essential humanity, it will help other women who have been charged in these cases. And hopefully may get Gail home sooner rather than later.
