Patsavas, Tia

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Illinois Wesleyan UniversityDigital Commons @ IWUNews and Events University Communications2013Film Screening and Discussion: Documentary ofExtraordinary Liberian WomenTia PatsavasIllinois Wesleyan UniversityThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Ames Library, the Andrew W. Mellon Center for Curricular and FacultyDevelopment, the Office of the Provost and the Office of the President. It has been accepted for inclusion in Digital Commons @ IWU bythe faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@iwu.edu.©Copyright is owned by the author of this document.Recommended CitationPatsavas, Tia, "Film Screening and Discussion: Documentary of Extraordinary Liberian Women" (2013). News and Events.Paper 2113.http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/news/2113Film Screening and Discussion: Documentary of Extraordinary Liberian Women Sept. 13, 2013                         BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — On Thursday, September 26, Illinois Wesleyan  University’s International Film Series and Evelyn Chapel’s Multifaith  Ambassadors will partner in the screening of the award-winning Brazilian  documentary, “Pray the Devil Back to Hell.” The film will be shown at 7:00 p.m.  at Beckman Auditorium in The Ames Library (1 Ames Plaza, Bloomington) and  will be followed by a discussion. The event is free and open to the public.  Director Gini Reticker’s 2008 documentary follows a courageous group of  Liberian women who stood up for peace in their efforts to end the Second  Liberian War. The war began in 1993 when two rebel groups violently emerged  in opposition to the corrupt and repressing Liberian government. By mid-2003,  the country’s capital, Monrovia, became a cataclysm of war.      The film documents the thousands of women of all ages, both Christian and Muslim, who came together in the midst of  a turbulent battle. The women prayed for peace and staged a silent protest in hopes of bringing about an agreement to end the war. Praised as “uplifting, disheartening, inspiring, enraging,” by The New York Times, the film shows how grassroots activism can be a crucial element in the fight for peace.  Reticker’s film was the recipient of multiple awards, including Best Documentary Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008. Leymah Gbowee, one of the activists featured in the film, received a Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia, and Tawakkul Karman, fellow activist, journalist and politician. According to the Norwegian Nobel Prize officials, the women were honored “for their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.” For additional information contact the Office of Communications at (309) 556-3181. Contact: Tia Patsavas ‘16 (309) 556-3181, univcomm@iwu.edu   

Film Screening and Discussion: Documentary of Extraordinary Liberian Women

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Film Screening and Discussion: Documentary of Extraordinary Liberian Women

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