Larry has lent his creative and musical support to a new documentary film that tells the story of five tenacious mothers in New York City who banded together to create the first public school for dyslexic students in the largest public school system in the United States.
Left Behind follows the mother's determined efforts to seek educational justice for their children who are among an estimated 200,000 New York City public school students who are dyslexic.
Larry is one of the producers of the documentary by filmmaker Anna Toomey. He also co-wrote and performed on two new tracks for the film—'One of Us' with Welsh singer Donna Lewis, and the film's closing track 'Between the Lines', with American singer-songwriter GAYLE (of 'ABCDEFU' fame), who was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child.
Toomey developed and directed Left Behind after her son was diagnosed with dyslexia and she discovered how inadequate resources were for millions of children like him throughout the United States. Like Toomey and several other Left Behind collaborators, including executive producers Zofia Moreno and Jean Reno, Larry is the parent of a dyslexic child.
'It is rare a film as compelling as this finds its way to you', Larry said, 'Making the music through the eyes of my dyslexic son was visceral and very personal.'
Despite facing mighty institutional and personal hurdles on their journey to upend the behemoth bureaucracy of the educational system, overhaul outdated politics and ideas about learning differences, the mothers were successful.
Last fall, South Bronx Literacy Academy, the first public school in New York City designed for children with dyslexia and other difficulties in reading, writing, spelling, and sometimes speaking, opened its doors. A second school is on track to open in Brooklyn in the fall of 2025.
'I watched the documentary with my dyslexic son,' Larry explained. 'I could see how he was reacting to it, and I came up with an idea of channeling his intensity and how he was feeling into a rhythm track.'
Larry co-wrote 'One of Us' to accompany images at the beginning of the film. As he watched his son viewing the documentary, he said, 'I could feel his stress and this real discomfort, so I just tried to translate that feeling using a pair of drumsticks. 'I could really feel what he was feeling. It was an attempt to try and let the only tool at my disposal, sticks, dictate what I felt was going on through his eyes.'
Left Behind also sheds light on the ways that the public school system ignores the needs of students with learning disabilities and, in doing so, contributes to the school-to-prison pipeline.Nearly half (47-50 percent) of the prison population in the United States is dyslexic.
The film is about 'a political movement in an odd way', Larry continued. 'When they talk about the dyslexic population in the US prison system we should remember it's the same in Ireland and around the world. 'My son fell through the cracks, and he didn't have access. Many people we have met and been in touch with from different parts of the world have all had similar experiences. 'The difference here is that these women, all of them, managed to change and invoke change - they actually achieved something real and there's a certain amount of joy in that resolution. 'That's an incredibly powerful story'.
Left Behind makes its theatrical debut on January 17, 2025, with a week-long engagement at QUAD Cinema in New York City. After that, the 74-minute film is expected to be shown in select cinemas throughout the United States.
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