Pray the Devil Back to Hell(2008)
dir. Gini Reticker
Liberian women sat in until the war ended.
Where to watch: Rent only: Amazon $4.99 / Apple TV $5.99; buy $8.99-14.99; no subscription, free or library option listed (JustWatch US, checked 2026-09-04, re-check). Verify.Letterboxd ↗
Liberia, mid-2000s: a long civil war has killed hundreds of thousands, and the men at the peace talks in Ghana are stalling. A group of Christian and Muslim women, in white, organize a mass movement of sit-ins and prayers, and eventually barricade the talks until a deal is signed. A documentary about women who ended a war with no weapons and no permission.
Why it’s here
It's a film about what organized women did when the men with guns would not stop. What's punk is the sit-in, the refusal to leave and the fact that nobody gave them a seat. What's pedagogical is how clearly it shows nonviolent organizing as a skill, with meetings, tactics and a plan. Pairs with Unbowed, This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed and A Paradise Built in Hell. Note: documentary, PG-13; war footage and descriptions of atrocities; teens and adults. English, some Liberian English with subtitles.
Where This Film Lives
Read Alongside
Books that share a topic, theme, or setting with this film.
Grace for President
Kelly DiPucchio
A girl runs for president and learns the system.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times
Carla Bergman & Nick Montgomery
Resistance that doesn't burn everyone out.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Notes from Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture
Stephen Duncombe
Why people make zines, and what it changes.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century
Grace Lee Boggs and Scott Kurashige
Rebuild your own block. Start there.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Thinking in Systems: A Primer
Donella H. Meadows
Why systems resist change, and where to push.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
We Are Indivisible: A Blueprint for Democracy After Trump
Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin
A checklist for making Congress answer you.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction
Christopher Alexander et al.
253 patterns for designing a place people can live in.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice
Jessica Gordon Nembhard
The Black co-ops history forgot to teach.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST