The Man I Left Behind

Films

Synopsis

Larry Towell’s business card reads: ‘Human Being’. For the past 40 years, the celebrated Magnum photographer—one of the greatest war photographers in the world—has chronicled humankind’s deepest struggles.

In The Man I Left Behind, Towell reflects on his pursuit of stories shaped by conflict and displacement, drawing from an archive of photos, videos, songs, and poetry. The film contrasts the chaos of war with the tranquility of his family farm and explores how losing land can mean losing oneself, powerfully highlighting the absurdity of war.

Biografie van de regisseur

LARRY TOWELL is a prominent documentary photographer and musician, renowned for his work on conflict, human rights, and land-related issues. His major projects include in-depth explorations in El Salvador, Palestine, among Mennonites, and in Afghanistan. Towell’s work has been featured in leading publications such as The New York Times Magazine, Life Magazine, Rolling Stone, Geo, Stern, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker. He has received numerous accolades, including the prestigious World Press Photo of the Year. His contributions to the field have culminated in the publication of sixteen books, several music projects, and The Man I Left Behind, his debut film.

MATTHIEU RYTZ is a producer, curator, photographer, and award-winning film director with a background in visual anthropology. His passion for storytelling has driven him to explore and document complex human and environmental issues across the globe. Rytz specializes in creating multidisciplinary, multichannel projects, using film, still images, and virtual reality to tell these stories in the most impactful way. His debut feature film, Anote’s Ark, received widespread acclaim after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018, winning several awards. His follow-up, Deep Rising, presented at Sundance 2023, was shortlisted for an Academy Award and has been showcased at over 150 festivals worldwide, including Millenium.

HUBERT HAYAUD balances his professional life between editing feature-length documentaries, fiction films, and working as a photographer. He is a frequent contributor to the francophone newspaper Le Devoir, and his photographic work has been featured in publications such as Le Monde, Leica Fotografie International, Géo, The Guardian, Libération, and The New York Times. The short and feature-length films, fiction, and documentaries he has contributed to have been showcased at various prestigious festivals, including those in Venice, Karlovy Vary, TIFF, and Hotdocs.