Oscar-Nominated Director Fights to Save WASP Documentary

In the pursuit to tell World War II’s most underrepresented stories and honor the legacy of women aviators that helped propel the U.S. and its allies to victory 80 years ago, one filmmaker is asking for community assistance in helping bring her documentary to the finish line. 

Oscar-nominated director Matia Karrell’s documentary, Coming Home: Fight for a Legacy, is set to detail the contributions made by the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) during WWII. Scheduled for release later this year after receiving a prestigious grant to pursue the work, Karrell was notified in April that those funds would be rescinded due to cuts to various government programs by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“When we received the NEH [National Endowment for the Humanities] grant last fall, a grant large enough to take us through to the finish line, we cried tears of joy,” Hilary Prentice, a producer on the film, said in a statement. “It was not only our win. It was a win for all the WASP we had interviewed and their stories that we are telling…It was a win for the years we have sacrificed and invested our time and personal monies, juggling other jobs and family commitments. We thought we were finally at the finish line.”

DOGE made the decision to axe more than 1,000 grants that had been awarded to the NEH, equating to roughly 85 percent of the agency’s funding as a whole. Karrell received word on April 1 that her grant totaling $480,000 had been terminated. 

Rather than fold the project altogether, both Karrell and Prentice have set out on a crowdfunding campaign to get the story told and seen by an audience that they believe will be impacted in a profound way. According to the production team, over 1 million organic social media impressions related to the documentary are generated each month. 

Through its crowdfunding efforts, the documentary is seeking $30,000 for postproduction funds. Currently, about 58 percent of that has been raised. Potential donors have until Thursday to contribute to the campaign. 

Coinciding with other funding initiatives, Karrell and Prentice have created a virtual event series showcasing clips from the film and compiling a panel that includes the filmmakers and historians to discuss the famous women aviators. 

The first installment of the series was Monday in honor of Veterans Day.

The story of the WASPs is one that has been undertold for decades. Initially composed as separate groups, the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) and the Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD,) the two merged in 1943, creating a single unit for all women pilots. 

The WASPs set out on a thankless mission of ferrying aircraft within the U.S., as well as towing targets for gunnery training, freeing up men for combat roles.

According to the Airforce Historical Support Division, during the war the WASP pilot training program graduated 1,074 enrollees and accounted for over 50 percent of all U.S. aircraft ferried within the country during that time. 

Thirty-eight of these women died during service—11 in training and 27 during missions.