WWTW Interview: ‘Pray the Devil Back to Hell’ producer Abigail Disney

The women at the heart of “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” craved peace in their native Liberia after too many years of bloodshed.

So they bonded together, setting aside religious differences, to make the country’s raging civil war history.

Their peace effort plays out in “Devil,” a new documentary produced by Abigail Disney and slated for a fall DVD release. It will also be shown during the September Global Peace Tour.

Disney, founder of the nonprofit Daphne Foundation and, yes, the grand-niece of Walt Disney and daughter of Roy E. Disney, checked in with WWTW to share her transformation from social change advocate to film producer and the power of a potent last name.

WWTW: How did you get involved in the project, and was it difficult to find backing for such a remarkable story?

AD: I found the project totally by accident on a trip to Liberia to explore how I could be helpful through my foundation.  I just heard some women refer to it here and there and started trying to put together all the pieces I was hearing.  Little by little I figured out that something incredible had happened and it was unknown outside of Liberia and that just struck me as so deeply wrong.

WWTW: One of the women in “Pray the Devil …” relates the reasons for the ongoing bloodshed (power, money, greed, ethnic tension …). The film doesn’t delve much deeper into the root causes … or the politics. Can you explain why the film took that approach?

AD: Our feeling was that this film was for the women and should be entirely from their perspective.  And to them, those causes were so petty and uninteresting compared with the agony they were suffering.  At the end of the day they really believed that it was only a power grab and all the other reasons were covers for that anyway. To go into any detail was to dignify the warlords entirely more than they deserved to be dignified.

WWTW: What did the women featured in the film have in common, from your perspective? What made them strong enough to accomplish something so remarkable … and so rare?

AD: Well, not as rare as all that, you should know. I think women do this every once in a while, and it gets forgotten, just as this was about to be forgotten had I not stumbled onto it. But the women shared a commitment to working together and not getting divided from each other by religion or class as women can so often be, and that was courageous on their part.  They were ALL fed up with the war and all the war had done to destroy their worlds, and they were totally committed to win the peace or, quite frankly, to die trying.

WWTW: You’ve been active in the nonprofit world for some time, and now you’re branching out as a film producer. Can you share your thoughts on this transition?

AD: For me, it’s been a pretty natural transition, since working in the nonprofit world is about relationships, and listening, and getting out into the world and speaking your truth to anyone who will listen, and that’s pretty much what being a producer is about as well. It’s been thrilling to learn my  way around a new world!

WWTW: Was there a particular film, or filmmaker, who inspired your embrace of the documentary format?

AD: Not really.  I love documentaries, and while this may seem off the wall, my father made wildlife films all through my childhood and I really loved the form and loved the way each film required him to learn a whole new set of facts and information. But in terms of its influence, a good documentary is just a really effective way to make sure that your view of a situation is heard in its entirety, and that is a compelling reason to make one.

WWTW: Your family lineage is legendary and associated with heartwarming fare for the whole family. Has your last name helped or hurt you as you segue into the documentary field?

AD: It’s probably helped AND hurt. I know that some people are more likely to come and want to see “Devil” because of my name, just because it’s well known, and that never hurts. And then again there are people who presume to know what my political point of view will be, or presume that I am only doing this because I have access and so can’t possibly have any talent, and that of course is a negative.

But honestly, it’s probably helped me more than it has hurt.  I haven’t worked with or through the company in any way though, not because I have anything against them, but because as a matter of personal pride, I wanted to know I got here on my own merits.

WWTW: What lessons can people across the globe learn from the Liberian women who helped end their country’s bloody ways?

AD: We all have so much to learn from these women. They stepped up, first of all, and they never gave up. They came together in spite of their differences and found strength by focusing on what they had in common rather than on what made them different. And I think we could all learn from the way that they took the problems of their country to be their responsibility, not somebody else’s, to address. They didn’t wait for someone else to come along and fix it.

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