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COMING HOME: FIGHT FOR A LEGACY

by The Red Door Films


Sarah Deal

My name is Sarah Deal. I am a retired Lieutenant Colonel, United States Marine Corps, and the first female Marine selected for Naval aviation training and the Marine Corps' first female aviator. 

It is an honor to be a part of the WASP legacy.

Coming Home: Fight for a Legacy seeks to bring the vibrant and important story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II to a new generation: providing a snapshot of what women can do when opportunities are provided. Coming Home is an intimate portrait of five inspiring women whose insatiable love of flying led them to serve their country in its time of need.
 
WASP veterans Beverly Beesemyer, Bee Haydu, Alyce Rohrer, Shirley Kruse, and Millie Young share in their own words what it was like to be young women flying military aircraft in World War II, rising up against all odds to succeed. I cannot think of a more worthy cause and tribute to the heroes that paved the way for so many women in aviation.


A Story of Adventure, Achievement, and One That Must Be Told!

 
OUR STORY

From OSCAR®-nominated director and producer Matia Karrell and OSCAR®-nominated writer Sharon WoodComing Home: Fight For A Legacy is about the Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII (WASP) and their 75-year fight for their rightful place in history with historical context provided by Kent State University faculty member Molly Merryman, Ph.D., author of the NYU Press classics selection Clipped Wings: The Rise and Fall of the WASP.

Six women fight to prove they have what it takes to be among the first female military pilots in WWII, while, unbeknownst to them, political forces in Congress try to destroy their efforts and erase them from history. Framed by the diaries and letters written during our heroes’ time in the service, the first-ever feature-length film about the WASP also celebrates early female pilots of all races and their contributions to aviation from the 1920s to today. 

Coming Home: Fight for a Legacy also highlights:

  • 16 Interviews with surviving WASP
  • Never-before-seen personal archival footage
  • 2016 WASP victory for their internment rights at Arlington Cemetery 
  • 25,000 women pilots who applied for the service and the 1,074 who made it through
  • 38 women who died in the line of duty, with no Gold Star or military benefits
Coming Home's scholars, historians, and contemporary women aviators:
  • Provide context and insight 
  • Broaden the landscape of our documentary to include the untold stories of the African American women pilots who were denied entry due to segregation
  • Inspire future generations of women pilots


 

Raising $350K in finishing funds to go towards:

  • Writing
  • Editing
  • Aerial Shoot/WWII Planes
  • Remaining Interviews and B-Roll
  • Stock Footage Licensing
  • Drone Shooting
  • Finishing (Color/Sound)
  • Composer
  • Animation
  • Voiceovers
  • Titles and Graphics

 

OUR TEAM

MATIA KARRELL (DIRECTOR/PRODUCER), a Fulbright scholar, has an extensive career in film and television and was nominated for an Academy Award for her short film, Cadillac Dreams.  She is known for the film, Behind the Red Door, starring Kiefer Sutherland, as well as The West Wing and Army Wives. The recipient of the Fulbright and other prestigious fellowships, Karrell is also a Graduate Film Instructor at ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena.

HILARY PRENTICE (PRODUCER) is also producing Karrell’s dramatic television series about the WASP, FlyGirls. Prentice worked on Emmy-nominated HBO film, The Tale, and award-winning animation director Fabrice Joubert's film, Safety. Prentice produced writer/director Jim MacDonald’s award-winning first film, Heavy Lifting. Prentice has also written, directed, and produced educational shorts for nonprofits including the award-winning start-up Magic Links. An Academic All-American graduating with honors from Dartmouth College, Prentice was also the recipient of Dartmouth’s prestigious Louis Morton History prize and a Sloane-Dicky fellow.

TARA CRAIG (PRODUCER) is the founder and president of The Squid Farm, which launched in 2017. Under the Squid Farm banner, Craig recently produced the feature comedy Guest House and the sci-fi thriller 3022. In 2018, Craig also served as Executive Producer on the comedy feature Friendsgiving, produced by Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Productions. She also recently produced commercials for the National Basketball Association and Goodyear. Craig produced the 2013 Tribeca film Trust Me, Balls to the Wall and April Fool’s Day

SHARON WOOD (WRITER), a longtime documentary filmmaker, has served as writer on OSCAR® nominees Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press, and Super Chief: The Life and Legacy of Earl Warren, along with the Peabody and Columbia-Dupont award-winning The Celluloid Closet and Paragraph 175.  Between 2003-11, she was producer/writer for Lucasfilm’s documentary department and co-authored The Art of Nonfiction Movie Making along with OSCAR® winners Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein, published by Praeger-ABC Clio in 2012. 

MOLLY MERRYMAN, Ph.D. (CONSULTING PRODUCERis the founding director of the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality and Associate Professor, School of Peace and Conflict Studies at Kent State University. She is the author of Clipped Wings: The Rise and Fall of the WASP of World War II, first published in 1997 and recently selected for a 2020 re-release in the New York University Press “Classics” collection. She has directed and produced nine documentaries that have been broadcast in the United States and the United Kingdom and have screened at academic meetings, museums, and universities around the world.

CHARISSA THREAT, Ph.D. (CONSULTING PRODUCER) is the author of Nursing Civil Rights: Gender and Race in the Army Nurse Corps (University of Illinois Press, 2015), won the 2017 Lavinia L. Dock Book Award from the American Association for the History of Nursing for outstanding research and writing on the history of nursing. Charissa Threat is an Associate Professor of History at Chapman University where she teaches courses in United States and African American history.  She is also the author of several book chapters, most recently, “Patriotism is Neither Masculine or Feminine”: Gender and the Work of War” in the Routledge History of Gender, War and the US Military, Kara D. Vuic, ed. (Routledge Press, 2017).  She is currently at work on her second book, "Sweethearts and Pin-Ups". It is a history that examines home-front activities, wartime participation, and investigates intimate relations among African American women and men in the context of the Second World War. 

JOHN KAFTA (ANIMATION PRODUCERhas been in animation for years as an animator, producer, and director. He has animated TV commercials for sugar-coated breakfast cereals of many flavors and on forgotten TV shows. He has directed various TV series, among them Ninja Turtles, a DVD with a Disney Princess, and a CG film starring kids and dinosaurs. As a producer, he brought you music videos and TV series such as Spawn and others with assorted action heroes. He has worked in various capacities and in various countries on shows including Curious George, Rugrats, Land Before Time, Puppy Dog Pals, Amazing Stories, and in VFX and for a theme park development company. 

Read more about the Coming Home team

 
 
They fought for this country.
 
They spent their lives fighting for their legacy.

Now, we must fight for them. 
 
The Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II
 
 
 
 
**Color Footage Courtesy WASP Archive, Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX
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  • Advanced release streaming link to the completed documentary
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  • Credited in the Special Thanks of Coming Home as a Bronze Circle Member of our "Pilot's Cross Circle"
  • Receive special invitations to all of our events, private receptions and private screenings

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Believers

  • Advanced release streaming link to the completed documentary
  • Digital copy of Coming Home with behind the scenes content
  • Credited in the Special Thanks of Coming Home as a Silver Circle Member of our Pilot's Cross Circle, as well as any future educational documentaries about the WASP that The Red Door Films produces to accompany their dramatic series FlyGirls 
  • Receive special invitations to all of our events, private receptions and private screenings

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Believers

  • Advanced release streaming link to the completed documentary
  • Digital copy of Coming Home with behind the scenes content
  • Credited in the Special Thanks of Coming Home as a Gold Circle Member of our Pilot's Cross Circle, as well as any future educational documentaries about the WASP that The Red Door Films produces to accompany our dramatic series FlyGirls
  • Receive special invitations to all of our events, private receptions, and private screenings.

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  • Credited in the Special Thanks of Coming Home as a Platinum Circle Member of our Pilot's Cross Circle, as well as any future educational documentaries about the WASP that The Red Door Films produces to accompany their dramatic series FlyGirls 
  • Advanced release streaming link to the completed documentary
  • Digital copy of Coming Home with behind the scenes content
  • Receive special invitations to all of our events, private receptions, and private screenings

*Internet Movie Database

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  • Credited in the Special Thanks by name in the closing credits of Coming Home as well as any future educational documentaries about the WASP that The Red Door Films produces to accompany their dramatic series FlyGirls 
  • Advanced release streaming link to the completed documentary
  • Digital copy of Coming Home with behind the scenes content
  • Receive special invitations to all of our events, private receptions, and private screenings
  • Internet Movie Database (IMDb) credit

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  • Credited in the Special Thanks in future educational documentaries about the WASP that The Red Door Films produces to accompany their dramatic series FlyGirls 
  • Advanced release streaming link to the completed documentary
  • Digital copy of Coming Home with behind the scenes content
  • Receive special invitations to all of our events, private receptions, and private screenings
  • Internet Movie Database (IMDb) credit

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“THIS FILM WAS MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPPORT OF..."

  • Credited under “THIS FILM WAS MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPPORT OF" in the closing credits of Coming Home: Fight for a Legacy
  • Credited in the Special Thanks in future educational documentaries about the WASP that The Red Door Films produces to accompany their dramatic series FlyGirls 
  • Advanced release streaming link to the completed documentary
  • Digital copy of Coming Home with behind the scenes content
  • Receive special invitations to all of our events, private receptions, and private screenings
  • Internet Movie Database (IMDb) credit

$35,000-$50,000

"THIS FILM WAS MADE POSSIBLE..."

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