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Ernest Cole: Lost and Found

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Ernest Cole: Lost and Found

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Summary

Documentary on Ernest Cole, a Black South African photographer whose work in the 1960s recorded life under apartheid before he was compelled to leave the country. Film-maker Raoul Peck looks into Cole's life and work, and delves into the 60,000 negatives shot by the artist that went undiscovered until 27 years after Cole's untimely death in 1990.

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IMDB

Review

A star rating of 4 out of 5.

Calum Russell

The life and work of South African photographer Ernest Cole is carefully unfurled in a film whose title, Lost and Found, refers both to its exiled subject and to the trove of Cole's images discovered in a Swiss safety deposit box years after he passed away. Director Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) charts Cole's biography: his early activism, as he started using his art to expose the cruelty of the apartheid state; his subsequent exile in 1966; and his eventual death in New York City in 1990, over 7,000 miles from home. Pining to return to his birthplace, Cole emerges as a melancholy figure, his own words read in voiceover by actor LaKeith Stanfield, set to a soft jazz score by Alexei Aigui. Despite this core of sadness, Peck remains alive to his subject's powerful creative voice, and weaves Cole's thoughts and photos into a fascinating and wide-ranging mosaic, one that's often lyrical as it pairs bold imagery with mournful meditation. The result is a ballad of a deeply passionate artist, alienated from the country he fought to change one frame at a time.

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7.3/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameErnest ColeLaKeith Stanfield

Crew

rolenameDirectorRaoul Peck

Details

Theatrical distributor

Dogwoof

Released on

2025-03-07

Languages

English | French

Guidance

Violence

Formats

Black and white

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