APPENDIX B: Religion and Conflict Transformation Films 355 APPENDIX B DOCUMENTARY FILMS: RELIGION AND CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION Raymond G. Helmick, S.J., John J. Michalczyk & Rodney L. Petersen The end of the twentieth century, and the bi-polar tension (1917-89) that characterized much of it, saw conflict break out in new ways around is- sues of identity. Such conflict, often engineered by cynical manipulative forces playing on group anxiety and historical grievance, made of religion a weapon for harm rather than healing. 1 If conflict has been drawn to iden- tity marked by religious definition and foreign policy to how we understand political identity, then conflict and its resulting violence is now caught up in an ideological use of religious terminology. Dealing with conflict as such has become an aspect of Christian mission 2 and we need the work of theologians to help shape our understanding – precisely to avoid a new age of religious warfare. It is in this context that a whole library of books has been written over the last quarter century. Books like Religion, the Missing Dimension of Statecraft (1994) have alerted policy makers to a new appreciation of the role of religion in public life; 3 questions about reconciliation, truth com- missions and the means of transitional justice in settings of political fragil- ity have been raised in Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing His- tory after Genocide and Mass Violence (1999); 4 The Ambivalence of the Sacred. Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation (2000) has made us more keenly aware of religion’s role to harm as well as to heal; 5 and the need to