Leon Cooper, a 94-year-old World War II veteran, is taking his last mission — a trip to the Philippines. The trip coincides with Memorial Day and is in preparation for a documentary, “Return to the Philippines,” a Steven Barber and Matthew Hausle film, to be produced by Vanilla Fire Productions. Cooper has been a Malibu resident for 50 years.
The film follows “Return to Tarawa,” produced by Cooper and Barber, which recounts not just the bloodbath of this battle, but Cooper’s return last year to Tarawa in the Republic of Kiribati and his resulting effort, and battle, to change what he found there.