| Pray the Devil Back to Hell | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical Poster | |
| Directed by | Gini Reticker |
| Produced by | Abigail Disney |
| Cinematography | Kirsten Johnson |
| Edited by | Kate Taverna Meg Reticker |
| Music by | Blake Leyh |
| Distributed by | Balcony Releasing (US) ro*co films (International) |
Release dates |
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Running time | 72 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English subtitles |
Pray the Devil Back to Hell is a 2008 Americandocumentary film directed byGini Reticker and produced byAbigail Disney. The film premiered at the 2008Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Documentary.[1] The film had its theatrical release in New York City on November 7, 2008. It had cumulative gross worldwide of $90,066.[2]
The film documents apeace movement calledWomen of Liberia Mass Action for Peace. Organized by social workerLeymah Gbowee, the movement started with praying and singing in a fish market.[3] Leymah Gbowee organized theChristian andMuslim women ofMonrovia,Liberia to pray for peace and to organizenonviolent protests. Dressed in white to symbolize peace, and numbering in the thousands, the women became a political force against violence and against their government.[4]
Their movement led to the election ofEllen Johnson Sirleaf in Liberia, the firstAfrican nation with afemale president. The film has been used as anadvocacy tool in post-conflict zones likeSudan, mobilizing African women to petition for peace and security.[5]
A group of ordinary women inLiberia, led by Leymah Gbowee, came together to pray for peace. Armed only with white T-shirts and the courage of their convictions, they demanded a resolution to the country’s civil war.[6]
Under Leymah Gbowee's leadership, the women managed to force a meeting with PresidentCharles Taylor and extract a promise from him to attend peace talks inGhana. Gbowee then led a delegation of Liberian women to Ghana to continue to apply pressure on the warring factions during the peace process.[7] They staged a silent protest outside of thePresidential Palace, Accra, bringing about an agreement during the stalled peace talks.
Asatu Bah Kenneth is featured in the film. She was as of 2011 the Assistant Minister for Administration and Public Safety of the Liberian Ministry of Justice.[8] At the time, she was the president of theLiberia Female Law Enforcement Association. Inspired by the work of the Christian women's peace initiative, she formed theLiberian Muslim Women's Organization to work for peace.[9]
Working together, over 3,000Christian andMuslim women mobilized their efforts, and as a result, the women were able to achieve peace in Liberia after a 14-year civil war and helped bring to power the country's first female head of state.
The title of the film is drawn from Gbowee’s statement about Taylor and the rebels. Both sides were supposedly religious. The rebels frequented mosques, while Taylor claimed to be a devout Christian who, according to Gbowee, could “pray the devil out of Hell.” It was therefore the responsibility of the women in this inter-faith coalition to pray the devil (of war) right back to Hell.[10]
In alphabetical order
As a result of theFirst Liberian Civil War from 1989 until 1996 andSecond Liberian Civil War from 1999 until 2003, and during post-conflict periods, Liberian women were displaced and faced the death of family members, sexual violence, and challenging economic and social environments.[11] The recovery effort has been led by Liberian women against sexual violence with an all-femaleUnited Nationspeacekeeping force,[12][13] trained in sophisticated combat tactics and weaponry, crowd and mob control, and counter-insurgency.[14] In 2009, women made up 15 percent of Liberia’s national police force.[15]
General:
