The documentary, Return to Tarawa, narrated by Ed Harris, is the story of Leon Cooper, an 86 year-old World War II vet who survived the bloody battle at Tarawa Island in the Philippines, where over 6,500 American, Japanese, and Korean men lost there lives in three days of brutal combat.
Cooper returns with Barber and a fierce commitment to cleaning up the beach littered with sewage, rusted artillery, and other pieces of remnants of warfare that are endangering the people who live there.
The series of serendipitous events which aligned to make this film possible has convinced Barber of an dynamic unseen force in his life.
“I didn’t do this to make money, I did it because it came to me divinely inspired, beginning with a chance meeting 12 years ago, with the infamous actor Eddie Albert ,” (Green Acres, The Heartbreak Kid.)
The aging actor who was a decorated war hero and recipient of a bronze star, invited Barber into his home and described his participation in the battle of Tarawa.
Two years later, at the Festival of Books event in Los Angeles, Barber struck up a conversation with Cooper who was promoting his clean-up initiative in Tarawa.
The name of the distant Island seemed familiar, and it wasn’t long before Barber and Cooper were partners on this charge, as Barber recognized that this was the story to tell for him as a filmmaker.
Once, the film crew got to the tiny island having raised the needed funds to launch the clean up effort, new information emerged.
Although most of the bodies of the fallen had been rightfully returned to their families in the U.S., through considerable confusion during this chaotic time, many of the bodies were not found and to this day are still listed as Missing in action (MIA).
Cooper, who has suffered from nightmares for years since the war, felt compelled to honor the memory of the marines he watched perish sacrificing their lives.
“Now the mission is to get those bodies back,” explains Barber.
As Barber continues his journey with Cooper, he is also finishing another film project, “American Quadriplegic,” where he follows three paralyzed athletes competing in a grueling Alaskan race.
