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INVISIBLE WARRIORS: AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN IN WORLD WAR II – Review by Jennifer Merin

Jennifer Merin , , , , ,
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Make no mistake about it, Invisible Warriors: Africa American in World War II is an important documentary that brings to awareness another chapter in the U.S.’s heinous history of racial and gender disrimination. In it, filmmaker Gregory Cooke interviews Black women elder citizens who tell of their experiences as civilian and quasi-military workers who supported the U.S. fighting forces during World War II. They were then young women who left their hometowns and families and relocated to industrial centers where they filled jobs that were left open by men who’d been recruited to fight on the front lines. These women’s contibutions to the war effort were beyond essential, their skills were more than mighty and their patriotism and dedication to duty were unassailable. Yet, as Black women, they faced unforgettable and unforgiveable racial and gender discrimination that impacted every aspect of their work and personal lives at that time and up to the present.

Using archival footage and current on camera interviews, Cooke shows us how these ‘invisible warriors’ bravely fought back by organizing to protect themselves and to assert their rights. Then, when the war was won and the men came back to reclaim their jobs, the women faced another challenging lifestyle reorientation — being pushed aside. But, with a hard-earned a sense of independence, rightful entitemment and personal purpose, many of the women wartime workers went on to achieve important careers as academics, engineers, librarians, elected officials and you name it. Collectively, they became an important and effective force in the civil rights movement. And, it is so very inspiring to meet some of them in this documentary.

Recently. we’ve seen a number of compelling fictional films, truth-based narratives and documentaries that awaken audiences to our country’s history of racial and gender injustices that must be recognized and reconciled. Invisible Warriors: Africa American in World War II is a movie that matters. Add this compelling documentary to your must-see movie list for Black History Month.

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Jennifer Merin

Jennifer Merin is the Film Critic for Womens eNews and contributes the CINEMA CITIZEN blog for and is managing editor for AWFJ.org, the online magazine of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, of which she is President. She has served as a regular critic and film-related interviewer for The New York Press and About.com. She has written about entertainment for USA Today, The L.A. Times, US Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Endless Vacation Magazine, NY Daily News, New York Post, SoHo News and other publications. After receiving her MFA from Tisch School of the Arts (Grad Acting), Jennifer performed at the O'Neill Theater Center's Playwrights Conference, Long Wharf Theater, American Place Theatre and LaMamma, where she worked with renown Japanese director, Shuji Terayama. She subsequently joined Terayama's theater company in Tokyo, where she also acted in films. Her journalism career began when she was asked to write about Terayama for The Drama Review. She became a regular contributor to the Christian Science Monitor after writing an article about Marketta Kimbrell's Theater For The Forgotten, with which she was performing at the time. She was an O'Neill Theater Center National Critics' Institute Fellow, and then became the institute's Coordinator. While teaching at the Universities of Wisconsin and Rhode Island, she wrote "A Directory of Festivals of Theater, Dance and Folklore Around the World," published by the International Theater Institute. Denmark's Odin Teatret's director, Eugenio Barba, wrote his manifesto in the form of a letter to "Dear Jennifer Merin," which has been published around the world, in languages as diverse as Farsi and Romanian. Jennifer's culturally-oriented travel column began in the LA Times in 1984, then moved to The Associated Press, LA Times Syndicate, Tribune Media, Creators Syndicate and Arcamax Publishing. She's been news writer/editor for ABC Radio Networks, on-air reporter for NBC, CBS Radio and for Westwood One's America In the Morning. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association in the Film, Documentary and TV branches and a voting member of the Black Reel Awards. For her AWFJ archive, type "Jennifer Merin" in the Search Box (upper right corner of screen).