2 Movies Starring Merian C. Cooper

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The real-life struggles of the Bakhtiari tribe of Southern Persia (Iran) to migrate with 50,000 people and ten times as much livestock over seemingly impassable natural barriers of mountain and river during harsh weather conditions to reach grazing lands for their cattle and other livestock. Their hardscrabble life is portrayed with poetically beautiful cinematography in possibly the greatest documentary of the silent era.

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A chronological celebration of the life and contributions to movies of Merian C. Cooper (1893-1973), adventurer turned filmmaker. Tossed from the Naval Academy and wanting to make his father proud, he becomes a bomber pilot in World War I, assists the Polish resistance, escapes from a Soviet prison, and becomes a documentary filmmaker. He brings his camera close to stampeding elephants and lunging tigers. With "King Kong," he used stop-motion animation. Other innovations include his use of aviation in movie making and his embrace of Technicolor and Cinemascope. Archival interviews of Cooper and his partner, Monty Schoedsack, add to the soundtrack. Talking heads also comment.