Balcony Releasing distributes PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL, which tells the remarkable but little-known story of a small band of unarmed women who risked their lives to bring peace to Liberia, a nation in West Africa founded as home for emancipated American slaves.
Accessing archival footage, American newspaper coverage and the direct testimony of women, this film earned awards at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival (Best Documentary Feature), Silverdocs (Witness Award), Jackson Hole Film Festival (Audience Choice: Documentary) and the Traverse City Film Festival (Special Jury Prize: Non-fiction Filmmaking). PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL will open in New York on Friday, November 7 and in Los Angeles on Friday, November 14, followed by a national rollout.
Charles Taylor was elected president of Liberia in 1996 and soon proved to be a corrupt dictator. Opposing warlords emerged during his rule to rape, murder and terrorize the citizens of Liberia. Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian woman who had experienced war, had a dream: “To get the women of the church together to pray for peace.” She invited ordinary mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and daughters from neighboring churches to start the Christian Women’s Initiative. Asatu Bah Kenneth, a Muslim, became one of Leymah’s supporters and created the Liberian Muslim Women’s Organization. Together this unlikely coalition of Christian and Muslim women prevailed over warlords and warriors to halt the decades-long fighting that claimed their fathers, brothers, husbands and children. Their demonstrations brought about the exile of Taylor and the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf ¬ñ Africa’s first female head of state ¬ñ and marked the vanguard of a new wave of women taking control of their political destiny around the world.
Directed by Gini Reticker and produced by Abigail E. Disney, the film features appearances by Leymah Gbowee, Asatu Bah Kenneth, Vaiba Flomo, Janet Johnson Bryant, Etweda Cooper and Etty Weah.
