Gonzaga to screen “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” as prelude to Liberian president visit

A Sept. 16 screening of the film “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” a documentary about the civil war and the Christian and Muslim women’s peace movement in Liberia, will serve as a prelude to Gonzaga University’s sixth Presidential Speaker Series lecture next month featuring Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Gonzaga Law Professor Mary Pat Treuthart will introduce film at 7 p.m. in the Barbieri Courtroom at the Gonzaga Law School and will facilitate a discussion afterward. The Gonzaga Journal of International Law sponsors the free and public event.

The film follows the silent protest of thousands of women – mothers, grandmothers, aunts and daughters, both Christian and Muslim – united outside of the Liberian Presidential Palace in 2003 to demand a resolution of the long-running and ruinous civil war. Their actions were a critical element in bringing about an agreement during the stalled peace talks. Following its premiere in 2008, the film has won numerous awards.

Sirleaf, winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Peace and Africa’s first democratically elected female head of state, will speak at Gonzaga’s McCarthey Athletic Center at 7 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 4.

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About Tracy Simmons

Tracy Simmons is an award winning journalist specializing in religion reporting, digital entrepreneurship and social journalism. In her 15 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti.
Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas and Connecticut. Currently she serves as the executive director of SpokaneFAVS.com, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Wash. She is also a Scholarly Assistant Professor at Washington State University.

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