The Last Free Man on Earth plays with dynamite human-interest subject matter. A minor music star throws away his wealth and the trappings of his fame to embark on an ascetic’s life in a cave, and right there, you have both celebrity and relatability. Who hasn’t thought of throwing off the rat race for something simpler? And conversely, who hasn’t envied the fast lane life that the film’s subject, Alex, rejects? The fact that he’s kept this self-imposed exile from civilization (in an admittedly gorgeous part of the world) for 9 years is a hook in itself—you could close your eyes and imagine one of our young Hollywood stars adapting this as an award-bait narrative feature.While Alex is charismatic enough to warrant the treatment, he is, maybe, more minor of a musical figure than you would script up. And…maybe a little more crazy. Kyan, this film’s director, perhaps summed it best in describing Alex as a bundle of contradictions, “…someone who craved solitude yet longed for connection, preached asceticism yet struggled with addiction, rejected capitalism yet lived beneath multi-million pound villas. Sometimes a prophet, sometimes a madman, often both at once.”Alex is never boring, though, and added to the juicy top-line hook, that’s two of the three legs of the “profile documentary stool”—my theory that all profile docs can be evaluated on the trifecta of hook, subject performance, and filmmaking verve. As for the last component, Kyan is quite the precocious talent. The film is only his second, as he’s best known to date as a musician, and he deeply immersed himself in the project. Armed with a Blackmagic 6k he won in a contest, Kyan discovered Alex on a walk and cultivated a relationship, returning several times as a one-man production crew to record. The process was almost like that of a wildlife photographer, as Kyan would sometimes spend 8–10 hours at a time with Alex in relative silence, looking for the moment he burst into manic action. The result is gorgeous, but intimate too—both in the proximity and familiarity Kyan establishes with Alex, but also the raw and serendipitous moments that are captured.The solo creation extended to post-production too, with Kyan taking charge of the edit and score. It was a long process, and we saw multiple cuts over the past couple of years, but Kyan brings a thoughtfulness to this process we admire, telling us that, “The structure of the edit was designed to mirror my own experience: it begins euphoric, with Alex talkative and animated, then slows into silence, boredom, and stillness as he retreats. The goal wasn’t to impose order, but to preserve the contradictions and unpredictability that defined him.”The result is a profile doc that is unusually complete, appealing to audiences as both popcorn and art, and one we’re very pleased to showcase today. Building on from this film, Kyan has received UK Arts Council funding for a hybrid documentary music art piece. He also has a new album coming out in the new year, accompanied by fresh music videos. We’ll be sure to pass that news along in the newsletter when they arrive!