Award Winning Filmmaker Comes Home with Two United States Marines from the Battle of 1943

Nov. 2, 2010 - PRLog -- Filmmaker Steven C. Barber released the Award Winning Documentary "Return to Tarawa: The Leon Cooper Story" in 2008. This film narrated by the great Ed Harris had one of the highest debuts in Discovery/Military Channel history and still has a two year run left. Return to Tarawa was so powerful that Congress enacted a Congressional mandate to send a 17 man force form JPAC (The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command) in August 2010 and the mission ended Sept 20th.

1,113 Marines were killed by the Imperial Japanese Forces in Nov of 1943, and over 500 of those Marines were never accounted for. The 5,000 Japanese that were also killed that day were all buried immediately and when the Americans came back in 1946 to begin bringing the war dead home, many were lost in the disinterment process. There are estimates of mass graves of Marines buried in the hundreds. This past summer, thanks to the tireless efforts of 91-year-old Leon Cooper, a Higgins boat commander in the battle, two of these Marines have been found and brought back to the US for identification.

Mr. Barber, along with co-producers Matthew Hausle and Tamara Henry, M.A. spent 34 days filming the sequel, http://www.UNTILTHEYAREHOME.com  This film picks up where Return to Tarawa left off. Barber and Hausle joined the JPAC team at Hickam Air force Base for a C-17 Military Airlift to Kwagalein and then a second transfer to a C-130 back to the A-toll of Tarawa. Immediately on hitting the Tarmac, Barber and Hausle with cameras already blazing from the flight begin to document the efforts of these unsung hero's they begin an amazing process to find Americas war dead.

There are 78,000 missing Americans from WWII, and 80% of those are from the Pacific theater. After six weeks on the ground and five researched sites from maps from the 1940s and GPS and ground penetrating radar, two US Marines were found after moving tons of cubic earth and brought back in a full military repatriation on the ground in Tarawa. A group of 40 Marines and a full honor guard flew in from around the world for this historic repatriation and Mr. Barber is quite sure that this second film will get picked up by a major studio or cable outlet.

Vanilla Fire Productions, Mr. Barber's production arm has reached out to Tom Hanks, Rob Reiner, Clint Eastwood and Michael Moore to distribute and has also had conversations with Matt Damon, Nick Nolte and Harrison Ford to narrate. "Following in the footsteps of Ed Harris is no easy task" says  Barber says, so that is why I had to go to the DOUBLE A LIST!  "This film will hit home with millions of Americans who are still touched by WII and waiting to hear about there loved ones" Barber said.

"It has been an honor to bring both these great stories to the world" said Barber, and he expects "Until They Are Home" to be ready for release in April of 2010. "Return to Tarawa" can be viewed for free on Hulu and Snagfilms.com. Mr. Barber is enjoying great success this year as he also has an Oscar qualified documentary called WWW.UNBEATENTHEMOVIE.COM narrated by Dan Aykroyd. This film follows 31 paraplegics 267 miles in 6 days and has won several awards and is literally saving lives.

"I came here in 1984 to be a movie star" Barber says, "and 26 years later, I have 2 finished documentaries and two more on the way. It all worked out great."

Check out the filmmaker's blog:
http://www.StevenCBarber.blogspot.com

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