West Newton Cinema Presents Behind the Screen: Baby Doe
About
Screening of BABY DOE, followed by a panel with director Jessica Earnshaw and WBUR host Deborah Becker. A compelling documentary explores a thirty-year mystery and the human toll of judgment, justice, and reproductive pressure. Three decades after a newborn was found abandoned in rural Ohio, a long-hidden tragedy returns in BABY DOE, a strong new documentary from Jessica Earnshaw, director of Jacinta. The film focuses on Gail Ritchey, who gave birth alone thirty years ago and left her infant in the woods. The child—later called “Geauga’s Child”—became a decades-long puzzle. Years later, DNA evidence connects Gail to the unknown infant, resulting in her arrest and a murder charge. Gail insists the baby was stillborn. Facing a potential life sentence, Gail must address the criminal justice system and the conditions, expectations, and religious pressures that guided her choices as a young woman. With her family nearby, she must face a past she thought was gone—and a society intent on defining what occurred. Moving past the sensational coverage, BABY DOE examines the human narrative beneath. The film considers the overlap of women’s health, reproductive autonomy, faith, stigma, and the justice system while raising hard questions about judgment, belief, and context.
