During World War II, more than 80,000 women volunteered to serve in the U.S. Navy. The women were known as WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). In 2007, Kathleen Ryan began collecting the stories of women who served during this era via digital video and audio recordings. The women were now in their 80s and 90s when the project began, so it was important that their stories are preserved for future generations.
Homefront Heroines: The WAVES of World War II tells their stories. The project features a documentary film, an interactive online documentary, a blog and multiple social media platforms.
Our website was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. It’s an interactive documentary archive about the women who were “the hinges of history.” The webdoc was also underwritten by the Ohio Humanities Council.
Homefront Heroines (the film) premiered at Through Women’s Eyes at the Sarasota Film Festival in 2013 and was an official selection at the San Pedro International Film Festival. It won a Broadcast Education Association Award of Excellence in 2014 and received the support of numerous grantors plus some fabulous donors who supported our Kickstarter campaign.
Buy or stream your own copy of the film now.
