WAYout Arts.WAYout Arts.

DO DEMONS DIE?

 

Do Demons Die? is a co-production with WAYout Arts. We have trained three former combatants in filmmaking and they are co-directing with Hazel Chandler to make this film. Shooting will take place March-June 2015

 

An ever growing number of gangs of brutalised young men – damaged by conflict- roam the world. They threaten stability and form an underclass that governments try to ignore. A forgotten, invisible minority until another conflict flares up. No attempts at reintegration and counselling have worked.

When they fought they had money, power, camaraderie, purpose -now they have nothing. We go inside the gangs who have lost everything and have nothing left to lose - and so they wait to fight again. Focusing on Sierra Leone and Liberia, this is an insight into misspent fortunes, the impact of violent experience and the failure to find meaningful roles post conflict- from a filmmaker who has spent years getting to know these gangs.

 

This is what is happening in places where there has been conflict followed by mass unemployment. These ex combatants don't necessarily form gangs waiting around for the next battle- their inability to reintegrate can take many forms. In America women veterans make up the fastest growing statistic of people becoming homeless, in Eastern Europe many organised crime syndicates are populated by ex fighters. In Europe and America large numbers of ex combatants join private security forces. In West Africa they form very visible invisibles who live on the streets or lose themselves in camps outside provincial towns, mining or carwashing or just hanging around. One thing they all have in common, besides mental health issues, is that no-one reaches out to help them once the initial burst of post conflict aid is gone. Those who have tried would never use the word 'failed' but neither do they report much success.

 

Are they a lost cause? If so they are a very volatile, unstable and growing one. Can counselling, rehabilitation or local reintegration schemes really help them or will there come a day, for national security reasons, they are disarmed, locked away, or shipped off to special camps and the sci-fi movie really does begin?

 

Do Demons Die brings on the ground stories of ex combatants living outside their societies, together with the latest thinking and insight into the impact of violent experience on mental health and the consequent inability to participate meaningfully in society.