Question: Which film has the director born first, Sri Valli (1945 Film) or The Frontiersman?

Wale Adebanwi( born 1969) is a Nigerian- born first Black Rhodes Professor at St Antony's College, Oxford. <SEP> The film stars Tim McCoy, Claire Windsor, Tom O'Brien, Russell Simpson, Lillian Leighton and Louise Lorraine. The film was released on June 11, 1927, by Metro- Goldwyn- Mayer. The Frontiersman is a 1927 American Western silent film directed by Reginald Barker and written by Tom Miranda and Gordon Rigby. <SEP> He is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of Tamil cinema, and one of three movie moguls of the South Indian film industry along with S. S. Vasan and L. V. Prasad. His production company AVM Productions is the only production company in Kollywood (Tamil film industry) to run successfully for five decades and three generations. AVM was born in Karaikudi in a well-to-do Nagarathar family. He moved to Chennai (then known as Madras) at an early age and established Saraswathi Stores which sold gramophone records. Avichi Meiyappa Chettiar (28 July 1907 – 12 August 1979), also known as A. V. Meiyappan or AVM, was an Indian film producer, director and philanthropist who established AVM Productions in Vadapalani, Chennai. Subsequently, he entered the film industry and started directing his own films. After some initial setbacks, AVM delivered a string of hits in the early 1940s. Following the immense success of his 1947 film "Nam Iruvar", AVM moved to film production and established AVM Productions in Chennai, first at Santhome and then at Kodambakkam. In 1951, AVM entered the Hindi film industry with the film "Bahar" starring Vyjayanthimala. By the time he died in 1979, he had produced 167 films. Notable films produced by AVM Productions are "VazhkaiBaharParasakthiHum Panchhi Ek Daal KeBhookailasKalathur KannammaServer Sundaram" and "Major Chandrakanth". AVM also directed a number of films in the 1930s and 1940s, the notable ones being "Alli ArjunaBhookailasSabapathySri Valli" and "Nam Iruvar". <SEP> Reginald C. Barker( April 2, 1886 – February 23, 1945) was a pioneer film director. <SEP> Claude Weisz is a French film director born in Paris. <SEP> It was co-directed by A. T. Krishnasamy who also wrote the script for the film. The film features T. R. Mahalingam and Kumari Rukmini in lead roles. " Sri Valli" is based on folk tale and adaptation of various films including silent film titled" Valli Thirumanam" in 1921. The film describes the romance between Lord Muruga and Valli, a tribal girl. Rest of the film shows how Valli wins the heart of Murugan. " Sri Valli" was the first Tamil film to introduce playback singing for the first time through lip synchronisation and also became the first film in which the dialogues were released in Gramaphone records. T. M. Rajagopal Sharma and R. Sudarsanam respectively composed the film's music and P. V. Krishna Iyer served as the cinematographer. Sri Valli is a 1945 Tamil- language Hindu mythological film co-directed by A. V. Meiyappan and produced by him under the banner Saraswati Cine Film Factory. The film was edited by the duo M. V. Raman, while V. M. Vatturkar and S. Ammaiyappan were the film's art directors. The film was released on 13 April 1945 with a final reel length of. Upon release," Sri Valli" received critical acclaim and went on to become a commercially successful venture at box office. It is considered to be a breakthrough film for both T. R. Mahalingam and Kumari Rukmini.