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An Award Winning Documentary Short (34 min.)

part of the IN TIMES OF WAR DOCUMENTARY PROJECT

When the Country needed every man,

She answered the call!

They weren't formally recognized, received no military benefits – many Americans don’t even know that they exist – and yet today, women’s place in this country might be very different if Vi Cowden, and the 1,073 other women like her, hadn’t been willing to do the job they did. They did it because it was the right thing to do, they did it because they loved to fly – they did it because their country needed them. It is a story of triumph and inspiration over adversity. She and her fellow Women Airforce Service Pilots (W.A.S.P.) were not only crucial to the war effort during World War II; they also changed the course of Women’s history.

Vi was among the first women in the United States to fly military planes. She ferried fighter planes (including her favorite, the P-51 Mustang) from the factories to the air bases where they were desperately needed, freeing up the male pilots who were desperately needed for service in the battles in Europe and Asia. Vi flew enough trips in her 2 years of service to have circumnavigated the world 55 times. In this documentary she tells her story from humble beginnings in a sod house in the Black Hills of South Dakota where she learned to fly biplanes, to flying fighter planes for the Army Air Corps in 1943 & ’44. Flying 19 different types of aircraft, this 93-year-old firecracker of a woman tells of never realizing she would be an inspiration to anyone, then she was thanked at her Pursuit Plane graduation by a male pilot who had been afraid to fly the P-47 Thunderbolt until one taxied by him and all he saw was the top of her curly hair. “If she can do it, I can do it!”

It was that can-do spirit that helped Vi to survive those years of flying where 38 other W.A.S.P. had given the ultimate sacrifice for their country – and, it should be noted, were not allowed to be buried with military honors.

At 89 she was the oldest person to skydive with the elite Army Golden Knights (beating out President George H.W. Bush by four years!) and in 2010 she became the oldest person to Pilot a P-51 (at 93-years-young). Vi and the women of the W.A.S.P. are an inspiration to anyone they meet and in March of 2010 Congress agreed, awarding them the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor they can bestow.

WINNER:
AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY - Sedona International Film Festival 2011
AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY - Port Townsend Film Festival 2010
AUDIENCE AWARD - Gig Harbor Film Festival 2010
AUDIENCE AWARD SHORT FILM - Newport Beach Film Festival 2010
AUDIENCE AWARD – Buffalo Niagara Film Festival 2010
BEST DOCUMENTARY - Riverside International Film Festival 2011
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT - Black Hills Film Festival 2010
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT - Rainier Independent Film Festival 2010
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT - Ventura Film Festival 2010
HONORABLE MENTION – ReelHeART International Film Festival 2011
AWARD OF MERIT: SHORT DOCUMENTARY - The Accolade Competition 2010

Official Entry:
Festivus Film Festival 2010
Boulder International Film Festival 2010
Durango Independent Film Festival 2010
Tiburon International Film Festival 2010
Palm Beach International Film Festival 2010 (not in competition)
Cheyenne International Film Festival 2010 (not in competition)
Air Venture - Oshkosh, WI 2010 (not in competition)
New Orleans Film Festival - 2010