Pray the Devil back to Hell

Yesterday I watched the documentary Pray the Devil back to Hell directed by Gini Reticker. The movie takes place in Liberia, a country in western Africa. The country itself was formed around 1825 by the ACS, American Colonization society, in a hope to return the freed slaves to Africa.  Much like what is going on in Israel, the tribes who already lived on the land have been fighting for years to reclaim what was taken from them. The movie describes how the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace came together to bring a peaceful end to the Second Liberian Civil War.

The Second Liberian Civil war initially started in 1999 when LURD, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, was formed by the Guinea government. Then in 2003 a second force formed. Together they attacked Liberia using child soldiers and slowly took over all the of the country until they reached the capitol where Charles Taylor and his government where. 

The movie speaks of the horror of war. They have multiple first person accounts of rapes and murders by the conquerors who were "helping the people". The whole movie is narrated by the women who headed Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace. They explain that everyone wanted the natural resources in Liberia and didn't care about the people. In an attempt to escape the murderous rebels ran to the government, who were equally horrible to them but as Leymah Gbowee, the head of the group, explained the people would rather have a devil they knew than one they knew nothing about. 

In a hope to solve the problem she, and other women from her church started the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace. They congregated in the capitol bringing together both Christian and Muslim women. Their idea: a sex strike. They were going to starve their men of sex until they stopped fighting, as well as having a food strike. In the end the government of Liberia began peace talks, which were eventually mediated by the UN and the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace took over reconstruction from the UN and set up a democratic government.

The mood of the film was very interesting. It was very sad because the film makers used a lot of b roll from the actual war. There were many shots of people shot, bleeding out, kids without limbs, and other horrific shots which emphasized the emotion of the film. The director, using first person accounts and b roll, took away from the informational aspect of the movie, because there was so much rampant emotion he never got to explaining other elements of the war. For example, why didn't the government just break up the hunger strike. Or after the rebels blew up part of the US embassy why didn't the US attack like we did in Libya? Questions like these were ignored because of an over use of Pathos. Over all the footage was amazing but at points the emotion got in the way of the facts.

I very much liked how the director used a narrator for the whole movie. She had a very soothing voice and charismatic personality that the viewer had to like her. Plus she had orchestrated the whole strike, so she was incredible.

I would definitely recommend this movie. It is an absolutely amazing story of what people can do without war, without guns, without death. These women, armed only white t shirts, stopped a whole war between three warring factions. It is just incredible what they have done. It shows that everyone can do something to help no matter how bad it seems. Definitely go watch it.

The Last Shadow Puppets

What do you get when you mix the talent of two famous English musicians? These guys. Miles Kane and Alex Turner met up whilst on a tour for the Arctic Monkeys, for whom Turner sings. Kane was the guitarist for the Little Flames, which went on tour with them. They became friends and then when the little Flames came on tour again in 2007 Miles Kane played guitar for the Arctic Monkeys final track, 505. They decided to collaborate their skills and write some music together. The band, the Last Shadow Puppets, was created in 2007 and released its first album, the Age of the Understatement, on February 20th, 2008.

The songs combined the best of their two bands, the amazing voice of Alex Turner, which was some what lacked in the Little Flames' songs and the beautiful melodic guitar play of Miles Kane. In the Arctic Monkeys' previous songs the guitar play had been a lot harder, with an almost metallic touch, while the Little Flames had used more bass to create a softer sound. According to the band they took this softer sound from their influence from the beetles.

After they released their album it rose to number one on the UK album charts and became a contender for the 2008 Mercury Music Award but lost to Elbow's The Seldom Seen Kid. They later released My Mistakes were made for you.














So these songs won't play on Blogger... but they're really really really good. So here are the links:

My mistakes were made for you

Calm like you

The Psychology of Music

Everyone enjoys music, whether it be a very new song or an old time song. People have long loved the beats and melody of music, but can it also have positive effects on the human body? In our media class we must create a documentary on a subject which interests us. I believe that music is one of the most important part of our society that is over looked by our schooling system. Music is part of every society, every culture, every nation and yet music programs are being cut from high schools around the nation.

Listening to calming music before you go to sleep and after you wake up has been proven to bring down high blood pressure. Music has also be proven to increase immune system health by decreasing the hormone cortisol, which is related to stress. Music can also increase productivity in a whole range of activities. It can help you sleep, wake you up, work hard, and decrease stress. Doctor Weinburger Ph.D said that listening to music can increase cognitive skills, language ability, creativity, reasoning, and social adjustment. Music has such an important effect on the mind and peoples live's yet it is basically ignored by the schooling system. My idea is to make a documentary about the importance of music in life.