A film by Abby Disney and Gini Riticker


Pray the Devil Back to Hell chronicles the remarkable story of the courageous Liberian women who came together to end a bloody civil war and bring peace to their shattered country.

Thousands of women - ordinary mothers, grandmothers, aunts and daughters, both Christian and Muslim - came together to pray for peace and then staged a silent protest outside of the Presidential Palace. Armed only with white T-Shirts and the courage of their convictions, they took on the warlords and nonviolently forced a resolution during the stalled peace talks.

A story of sacrifice, unity and transcendence, Pray the Devil Back to Hell honors the strength and perseverance of the women of Liberia. Inspiring, uplifting, and most of all, motivating, it is a compelling testimony of how grassroots activism can alter the history of nations.

At Womensphere, we believe in the power of film to convey messages that create awareness and inspire change.

As part of Womensphere’s L.I.V.E. WORLD program (Leadership, Innovation & Vision for the Earth), we are developing and producing a special film documentary - The Wild Horses of the Eastern Barrier Islands, aiming to explore and document the world and conservation of the oldest breed and last remaining wild horses that inhabit the Eastern Barrier Islands of Maryland, Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina.

Through this documentary, we provide a unique window into the wild horses’ way of life, and the care and conservation efforts that sustain them. We will also explore the historical origin, legends, and myths surrounding these majestic horses, whose stories are part of the history of America’s first settlers. This documentary film project is spearheaded by Cass O'Meara, Womensphere Chief Creative Officer for Film, and President of Jackfruit Inc.

Our Goals for the Documentary:
•To share unique knowledge about the lives, history, human relationships, and conservation efforts around the wild horses of the Eastern Barrier Islands of Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, and North Carolina.
•To show the horses “in the wild” and document their relationship with nature and with people.
•To explore the horses’ history and mythology as part of the histories of these states and of the country.

Cass O’Meara
Chief Administrative Officer, Womensphere
Chief Creative Officer for Video & Post-Production, Womensphere
President & Chief Editor, Jackfruit, Inc.

Cass is currently President and Chief Editor of Jackfruit, Inc., a creative editorial post-production company based in New York City.She has over 12 years of experience editing for TV, film, and commercials.Cass greatly enjoys working with her primary client, Showtime Networks.Her projects with Showtime include editing and writing promos for Tudors, Weeds, Dexter, HUFF, and the final two seasons of Queer as Folk.She also works with clients such as MTV Networks, and with independent producers. She is currently collaborating on a documentary produced by Ken Davenport (Crains New York’s 40 Under 40 rising star).

Cass began her career in the entertainment industry as a Production Assistant on the New York sets of “Quiz Show” directed by Robert Redford; “Amateur” - directed by Hal Hartley; and “Dottie Gets Spanked” - directed by Todd Haynes, to name a few. She started her post-production career as an Assistant Editor on the TV Show “Lauren Hutton and…” She also worked with and assisted legendary documentary filmmaker Albert Maysels.

Prior to starting her own company, Cass worked for over four years on commercial editing at The Well NY and Arc Light Editorial, cutting TV ads for clients like Cingular, the US Navy, and McDonalds. While working as an editor where she put images together to tell a story, O’Meara also spent much time writing. She has written five screenplays, over a dozen short stories, and completed a television pilot. She has also written and directed three short films: Snack Master, Checkmate, and Why?

Beyond her work in the entertainment industry, Cass is also involved as an advocate and supporter of social causes and the arts. She is a longstanding patron of the Global Fund for Women, PBS, and NPR. Cass is a volunteer of the New York Cares projects. She has also “adopted” a village elementary school in the Philippines, where she has taught as a volunteer and continues to contribute educational materials, books, and scholarship assistance.

Cass graduated with a BA in Philosophy from Elon University. She has taken filmmaking classes at the NYU Film Program and writing classes through the Gotham Writers Workshop.

Set on the border of Thailand and Eastern Burma, Crossing Midnight tells the story of a remarkable community of refugees from Burma working against incredible odds to help their own. Today, one million internally displaced persons are living in the jungles of Eastern Burma in the midst of on-going armed conflict. There, they live on the run, risking injury and death to forage for food to sustain their families. Over two million more have fled to the border of neighboring Thailand after enduring decades of oppression by a brutal military dictatorship.

During the violent crackdown of the 1988 student uprising, Dr. Cynthia Maung and a group of fellow students fled to the border of Thailand. There, with virtually nothing in hand, they created the Mae Tao Clinic in a one-room barn.Over twenty years later, in the midst of an unparalleled healthcare crisis, the clinic has grown into a community of over 500 healthcare workers, a school for refugee children and a dedicated group of cross-border backpack medics who travel at great risk through the jungles of Eastern Burma to treat those living on the run. Through rare footage of these backpack medics and poignant testimony from community leaders, Crossing Midnight presents a unique portrait of resilience, courage and hope.

BeCause Foundation is dedicated to solving complex social issues and promoting change through the power of film. BeCause Foundation drives social change through the powerful fusion of documentary filmmaking and related strategic programs. BeCause films tell moving stories about individuals, organizations, and communities who, with compassion and determination, are finding innovative solutions to complex social problems. By implementing engagement campaigns and coalition building around the films, BeCause Foundation helps transform such solutions into broad-based movements for social change.

Kim Snyder
Filmmaker, "Crossing Midnight"
Co-Founder of the BeCause Foundation

Kim Snyder is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who most recently co-founded the BeCause Foundation to produce a series of socially conscious documentaries and inspire philanthropy through the power of film. The first three films of the BeCause series (ALONE NO LOVE, ONE BRIDGE TO THE NEXT, CROSSING MIDNIGHT) have won numerous festival awards and have been the catalyst for campaigns that have significantly furthered the work of the social innovators they highlight. Kim has also been selected to be part of the US State Department's 2009 American Documentary Showcase in which she will be a "citizen ambassador" to a number of designated countries. Her upcoming film is set in America’s rural South, where on the eve of the recent election, a town deals with issues of immigrant integration and reckons with its segregated past.

Kim directed and produced the award-winning documentary I REMEMBER ME, which won numerous festival awards and was distributed theatrically in the U.S. by Zeitgeist Films.Her work includes numerous short documentaries as well as writer for Variety Magazine.Kim also worked as media producer for the Hamptons International Film Festival, producing commercials, trailers, and promotional media.

In 1994, Kim associate produced the Academy Award-winning short film TREVOR, directed and produced by Peggy Rajski, which became the cornerstone of The Trevor Project, a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to suicide prevention among gay youth. Kim served on the admissions review committee for NYU’s Graduate Film Program, and has been a producer’s rep for several critically acclaimed foreign films including CROWS (New Yorker Films) directed by Dorota Kedzierzawska. Kim graduated with a Masters in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

“TAPESTRIES OF HOPE” is supported by Freshwater Haven, a non-profit 501c3, created to foster education among children and adults about child abuse.

Every year thousands of girls in Zimbabwe are forced into marriage, abuse, sexual assault and trafficking.This abuse is mirrored everywhere in Africa, a continent so large that it struggles for a voice.Betty Makoni, founder of the Girl Child Network (GCN) works to empower girls in Zimbabwe, to free them from abuse and allow them to have the same opportunities in life as boys. GCN has built three safe empowerment villages for vulnerable girls and started 500 girls’ clubs with 30,000+ members, mostly in rural areas and in poor townships.GCN’s goals are to provide girls with food, clothes, medical care, a home, safety, and the opportunity to go to school. Above all, GCN strives to give girls the courage and strength to demand respect for their rights.

Michelle Titus
Executive Director
FRESHWATER HAVEN
Producer, “Tapestries of Hope”

Tapestries of Hope” is an awareness tool for social change as well as a support mechanism for girls abused in Zimbabwe and the world. Michelle and filmmaker Michealene Risley are currently previewing the film to audiences throughout the United States promoting a vital social outreach program intended to impact the way violence against women is addressed by society as well as government. Screenings were recently held in the US Capitol before Members of Congress as well as at the US State Department.

Michelle brings to Freshwater Haven 25 years of business management, marketing and philanthropic experience. Titus’ career accomplishments include five years of consulting in the area of best practice business management, as well as more than a decade as a senior executive in private and commercial banking.Titus served on the staff of Congressman Wm. M. Thomas (R-CA) and in the administration of California Governor George Deukmejian, prior to her position as a contract lobbyist in public relations and governmental advocacy before the California State Legislature. Throughout her adult life, Michelle has served on numerous charitable boards as well as volunteering with hands on organizations serving women, children and the economically disadvantaged.

A survivor of abuse and domestic violence, Michelle represents hope to others who choose to overcome their past and brings unique perspective to the effects of abuse on children. Despite achieving tremendous success in her careers, Titus’ inward struggles to deal with her traumatic experiences spiraled out of control.While Titus served a year of incarceration for bank fraud, this culmination of her past brought her face to face with many other women who were similarly abused and had also chosen desperate paths.This is where Titus’ healing and future truly began.She emerged with the goal to use her experience in both government and public relations to help forge realistic processes for ending abuse and promoting emotional wellness in women and children. Refusing to be identified by her worst moments – or allowing others to be defined in a similar fashion - she brings passion and compassion to Freshwater Haven’s cause.

Michelle is the mother of two teenage daughters and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. Contact: michelle@freshwaterhaven.org

Amina, a young woman (17), is pregnant and afraid to give birth. For consolation and advice she goes to older women, but their stories scare her even more.

Directed, animated, designed, written by Award-winning Filmmaker/Animator Signe Baumane
Producer: Pierre Poire
Music: Douglas Mullins
Sound design: Rob Daly

Signe Baumane
Award-winning Filmmaker Creator/Animator, “Birth”
Fellow in Film, New York Foundation for the Arts

Signe was born in Latvia and educated in Moscow. She has BA degree in Philosophy.Although she was a published writer since age 14, philosophy inspired Signe to turn to an animated story telling. She started to work at Riga's Animated Film Studio at the lowest possible position - cell painter. In a few years she gained enough experience to write, direct, and design 3 animated shorts, produced at the studio on government grants. The films were recognized at the international festival circle. Signe had a good reputation as a new Latvian animation director.

Longing for a stronger challenge and a bigger pond, Signe left Riga in 1995 for New York, where she started to work at independent animation star Bill Plympton's studio at the lowest possible position - cell painter. In few years she gained enough experience of the wild capitalism to start producing film on her own and in 2002 she left Bill's studio to start her own small studio.

Since her arrival to New York, Signe has produced and co-produced, written, directed and designed more than 9independent animated shorts. Signe has also continued her collaboration with Latvia's leading animation studio - Rija Films where she directed 2 of her own stories since 1995, and Pierre Poire Productions that produced her most successful films "Teat Beat of Sex" and "Birth".

Her films have been screened at such prestigious festivals as Annecy, Tribeca, Sundance, Berlin, Ottawa, Venice and they have received numerous awards. Signe is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a Fellow in Film from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Besides her own career Signe is also interested in promoting other people's work.She advises series of film festivals in USA on their animation programs, as well as she curates special shows where she personally presents films and filmmakers.
Animation is a passion for Signe, as well as a lifestyle.