Eileen Douglas

The mayor and the governor spoke first.

They both were funny.

The festival organizers also spoke.

They were earnest. As you might expect at the opening press conference to kick off the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.

Standing on stage far right in African dress was a woman. She spoke last.

In only a few words, it was clear. She was dynamite.



Leymah Gbowee, one of the subjects of the powerful documentary “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” admitted she didn’t know what Tribeca was before she left Liberia. But when she got on the plane to come here, “on Delta, I saw the Tribeca sign, and I said, Oh, this is big.”

“Pray the Devil” tells the true story of ordinary women, women of limited means, who nevertheless rose up to take courageous action in dire circumstances—the brutal civil war in Liberia—and do the unimaginable. Helping send “the devil,” brutal dictator Charles Taylor, packing. And of what they did you could also say, “Oh, this is big.”
Leymah Gbowee told the kickoff crowd in her lilting voice, “In a world where terrorism, civil war, poverty, world food crisis, ecological degradation is at an increase and seems to be winning, the movie is a glimmer of hope that good can definitely overcome evil. “ That peace and the positive can win.

The festival organizers had mentioned how many hours they spent “sitting in the dark” watching films to see which they would choose. Listening to Leymah, not yet having seen her film, I began to wonder a broader question. Can a film push back the dark? Can a film make a difference overcoming evil?

So I made it a point to see her film first and foremost.

250 thousand people died in the Liberian civil war. One out of 3, more than a million refugees, were displaced. Atrocities abounded.

“Pray the Devil Back to Hell” shows you women who “were tired of war. Tired of running. Tired of our children being raped.” They were, at the heart of it, trying to make their men see reason. In the film Leymah explains, “We lived in fear. I had a dream, a crazy dream, to get the women together to the church to pray for peace.” Then they decided to invite other Christian churches. That formed the Christian Women’s Power Initiative. Then their peace movement spread to Liberia’s Muslim women. The women pressured their priests and their imams. They camped out. They marched. They sent petitions. They risked their lives. They forced a peace negotiation. Their power prevailed.

For more on the film and to see Leymah Gbowee and the other women, you can take a look at their website, www.praythedevilbacktohell.com. (Also please see Ron Steinman’s review.)

For the larger question, on the impact of the film, I had the good fortune to speak with Leymah Gbowee, and with Gini Reticker, the film’s director.

Gbowee feels the film, born of tragedy, and ending in triumph, can be a force for good. Others can see the power. Know they are not alone. In her words, the good thing is it’s not just something that can happen in a particular part of the world. It’s not going to be seen as just an African thing. Or a Liberian thing. But standing up to the madness is something that can be done, as they did in the middle of their madness, all over the world. She hopes it will stir a kind of grassroots response. That other people in similar circumstances will see what was done and not allow bad things to happen. “This shows women can stand up to any ill.”

Nor does she see what they did as just about religion. Or war. What the women in Liberia did doesn’t speak to a particular issue, she says. What it does is particularly speak to women of our time, women with little resources. It shows them they have a role to play. Seeing the actions in “Pray the Devil” does something…watching a film does something. Seeing can motivate. Film is so good at that because it shows real women, real moments. Others can see what happened. Unlike just hearing about it, with film, “The images stick in people’s mind forever.” What she hopes is those who watch will be stirred to do something, to make the world a better place for women, for children, for our whole society.

Director Gini Reticker says when she and producer Abigail Disney first considered making “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” they had some trepidation. The war was filled with ugliness. Abuse of women. Rape. Boy soldiers. A murderous dictator. They feared it could be incredibly depressing to have to live in that world. But once they met Leymah, she says, they knew this was not going to be a story about despair. It would be inspiring.

And so it is.

As much as it is about forcing an end to war and killing, for her, too, the film is about “the power of women to work together. “ Reticker lets the women tell their own story. There is no narrator. It was important to her to film the women looking beautiful. To see and feel their dignity and strength. And to see their common bond.

“Pray the Devil Back to Hell” received its world premiere at Tribeca. Before that, Reticker says, it had only a few private screenings, all met at the end with standing ovations. The film either has or will be shown in other places of conflict. Nairobi, before Israelis and Palestinians, in Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan. The former Yugoslavia.
Does film have the power to beat back the dark? The women of “Pray the Devil certainly did in their actions. The film itself, when seen, gives courage. Certainly it inspires and exhilarates. And it has won a standing ovation of a different sort.
The Tribeca Film Festival ended with a raft of announcements. Numbers of tickets sold. Number of attendees. Films which won awards.

Best Documentary Feature? “Pray the Devil Back to Hell.”