Ernest Cole - Lost and Found

In the 1960s, photographer Ernest Cole exposed the harsh reality of apartheid, which led to worldwide shock and recognition. After his exile to New York, he fell into oblivion and died in poverty. That seemed to be the end of his turbulent story. Until 60,000 negatives of his work were discovered in a Swedish bank vault in 2017.

With his harrowing images, photographer Ernest Cole (1940-1990) was the first to show what apartheid meant for black South Africans like himself in the late 1960s. The world reacted with shock. Cole was praised for his talent, brought together in his book House of Bondage. But showing the harsh reality came at a price: Cole was banished to New York.

That he increasingly saw similarities in the US with the racism in his own country was a hard lesson. In the eighties, Cole fell into oblivion, partly because his negatives seemed to have been lost. He died there in 1990 in poverty, without ever returning to his home country. That seemed to be the end of his turbulent story. Until 60,000 negatives of his work were discovered in a Swedish bank vault in 2017.

Ernest Cole: Lost and Found is a confrontational documentary and a captivating homage to the photographer whose work remains relevant to this day. Using his stunning photographs, director Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) tells of his wanderings, his unrest as an artist and his daily anger about the complicity of the Western world in the horrors of the apartheid regime. Ernest Cole: Lost and Found made a triumphant tour of many film festivals and was awarded the L'Oeil d'or for best documentary in Cannes.