{"id":54963,"date":"2026-09-18T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T13:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=54963"},"modified":"2026-09-15T21:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T01:57:12","slug":"jessica-earnshaw-baby-doe-2026-female-filmmaker-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/18\/jessica-earnshaw-baby-doe-2026-female-filmmaker-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"Jessica Earnshaw: Baby Doe (2026) [Female Filmmaker Friday]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In 1993, the body of an abandoned newborn baby, dubbed \u201cGeauga\u2019s Child,\u201d was found in the woods. Thirty years later, Gail Ritchey, a woman from a conservative Christian community in Ohio, is arrested for the murder of a baby she says was stillborn.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The topic feels like one that should be open and shut: a woman abandons a newborn baby and years later is finally being held accountable. But Gail Ritchey\u2019s case is anything but simple. Ritchey is one of many women who experience what is known as an unperceived pregnancy, in which a woman may not recognize that she is pregnant or can develop a psychological block around the pregnancy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Gail is only 22 at the time of her pregnancy and has been in a long-term relationship with her boyfriend, Mark, whom she intends to marry. Despite this, her strict religious upbringing has left her deeply ashamed of having sex outside of marriage. When she finds out she is pregnant, she is so terrified of her father\u2019s reaction and Mark\u2019s reaction that she mentally blocks it out. As her pregnancy progresses, she doesn\u2019t get very big, and she doesn\u2019t feel the baby move. One day, while sitting on the toilet, she quickly goes into labor, delivering a baby that isn\u2019t moving or crying, and she believes it is stillborn. In a fog, she disposes of the baby and then disconnects it from herself. Gail and Mark would marry and have three more children. When this comes to light, her family is left reconciling the loving and gentle mother and wife with what she did decades earlier. Her family stands by her without question. There\u2019s a particularly poignant moment when Mark is looking at a picture with Gail\u2019s mother from when Gail was pregnant and proclaims his disbelief that they didn\u2019t know. And this moment speaks directly to one of the film\u2019s larger ideas: how easy it can be for the mind to not see what it is not ready to confront.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Director Jessica Earnshaw takes a case that seems easy to judge from the outside and asks the audience to look closer. She shows us rather than tells us. We bear witness to the investigation, the trial, and sentencing without Earnshaw dictating the conclusion. She lets the interviews and events speak for themselves. The restraint Earnshaw shows allows for a purity of storytelling that doesn\u2019t shy away from difficult moments. This film is not easy to watch, but it shouldn\u2019t be.<\/p>\n

Perhaps some of the most infuriating moments are watching a roomful of men continuously talking about women\u2019s bodies and women\u2019s experiences. It goes beyond the facts of this case, or others like it, exposing the larger issue of who gets to speak with authority about those experiences. Earnshaw doesn\u2019t need to editorialize; she allows these moments to play out, which makes it even more devastating. What becomes increasingly disturbing is the certainty with which these men make assumptions about a woman\u2019s body and experiences, without questioning their authority to do so. One moment that stands out is when a man states, \u201cThere has to be a punishment.\u201d The comment raises an upsetting question: is punishing someone more important than understanding how situations like this happen in the first place?<\/p>\n

Baby Doe<\/i> asks: what is justice in a case like this? The film raises difficult questions about a system that is often more prepared to punish women experiencing mental health crises than it is to understand them. What is gained by putting a woman like Gail Ritchey in prison for decades? Earnshaw is not asking us for an easy answer, but she leaves us questioning where accountability ends and punishment for the sake of punishment begins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1993, the body of an abandoned newborn baby, dubbed \u201cGeauga\u2019s Child,\u201d was found in the woods. Thirty years later, Gail Ritchey, a woman from a conservative Christian community in Ohio, is arrested for the murder of a baby she says was stillborn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2035],"tags":[292,2920],"class_list":["post-54963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-felfilmfri","tag-documentary","tag-female-filmmaker-friday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54964,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54963\/revisions\/54964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}