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For 40 years, Magnum photographer Larry Towell has documented the plight of the displaced around the world. In The Man I Left Behind, he captures the universal longing of people looking for a place to call their own. Larry Towell's business card reads: 'Human Being'. And for the past 40 years, the celebrated Magnum photographer has chronicled humankind's deepest struggles. In The Man I Left Behind, the Canadian artist and folk musician reflects on his relentless pursuit of stories shaped by conflict and displacement. In The Man I Left Behind, Towell pulls from a vast archive of photos, videos, songs, and poetry to contrast the turmoil of conflicts over territory with the serenity of his own family farm. The film poignantly explores how losing land can mean losing self and is a testament to the power of bearing witness. The film ultimately portrays the profound absurdity of war. Is a profile of Magnum photo and video journalist Larry Towell presented largely in his own words and images from his forty year career. He is largely seen as a war correspondent (in the broadest sense of the phrase) having been in the hot spots of, among others, Afghanistan, Palestine, Ukraine, Chiapas and the northern border regions of Mexico, although other photographic series presented include of the Mennonite communities of Mexico and Bolivia, home photos in rural Ontario, and various indigenous communities of North America, the latter which in many ways can still be seen as a war zone. He realizes that as a western white male he comes into the assignments from a specific perspective, although each experience does affect how he enters subsequent ones. He also does realize that photographs are a second in time which often will either support or contradict existing narratives, although he often does try to present images that are a juxtaposition of the direct issues of the combat themselves. —Huggo