Sebastian Junger’s The Last Patrol was captures using Canon Cinema EOS products. The documentary premiered October 23, 2014, and takes part in the Margaret Mead Film Festival.
Whether fighting or documenting the realities on the ground as a journalist, how does the context of war transform a person’s identity? What happens to that identity when soldiers return home? Sebastian Junger, war journalist and author of The Perfect Storm, explores these questions on a soul-searching journey with three comrades-in-arms. Junger, joined by Brendan O’Bryne and Dave Roels, protagonists of the Academy Award-nominated documentary, Restrepo, and combat journalist Guillermo Cervera walk along railroad tracks from Washington, D.C. to Pennsylvania. They move with a purposeful invisibility designed to echo the isolation felt by many who return from war. The men live outdoors and discuss the transition from soldier to civilian. With the backdrop of a varied United States revealed by the path of the tracks—ghettos and wealthy suburbs, heavy industry and farm country—the juxtaposition of scenery and conversations uncover diverse and conflicting American perceptions of war and what it means for veterans to come home.
Canon’s press release:
Canon Cinema EOS Products Capture Sebastian Junger’s The Last Patrol
MELVILLE, N.Y., November 14, 2014 – Canon U.S.A. Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, is proud to announce that Academy Award®-Nominated director Sebastian Junger (Restrepo, Korengal) and cinematographer Rudy Valdez chose Canon EOS Digital Cinema cameras and lenses for their new documentary The Last Patrol, the third installment of Junger’s trilogy of war documentaries. The pair of filmmakers relied on the Canon EOS C300 Digital Cinema camera to capture The Last Patrol, which premiered on HBO on November 10, 2014 and is currently airing on HBO.
The Last Patrol follows Junger, photojournalist Guillermo Cervera, and combat veterans Brendan O’Byrne and Dave Roels as they hike the 300-mile stretch of railroad lines from Washington, D.C. to New York City – a trek Junger originally planned with his close friend and acclaimed war photographer Tim Hetherington before Hetherington was killed in 2011 while covering the Libyan civil war. The goal of the journey was to get to know America again after a decade of war and discuss why combat is so incredibly hard to give up. Because hiking along the tracks is illegal, they moved with a purposeful invisibility designed to echo the isolation felt by many who return from war.
Interview with Sebastian Junger