Ernest Cole: Lost and Found

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1:52

Ernest Cole: Lost and Found

2024

1h 46m

Documentary

Biography

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Popcornmeter

97%

Tomatometer

38 Reviews

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Ernest Cole, a South African photographer was the first to expose the horrors of apartheid to a world audience. His book House of Bondage, published in 1967 when he was only 27 years old, led him into exile in NYC and Europe for the rest of his life, never to find his bearings. Raoul Peck recounts his wanderings, his turmoil as an artist and his anger, on a daily basis, at the silence or complicity of the Western world in the face of the horrors of the Apartheid regime. He also recounts how, in 2017, 60,000 negatives of his work were discovered in the safe of a Swedish bank.

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Critics Consensus

Ernest Cole: Lost and Found is a devastating yet essential portrait that blends archival sources with sleek direction and engrossing narration to plumb the depths of its subject's inner life and his groundbreaking photographic activism.

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Annabel Bai Jackson

Sight & Sound

Nov 5, 2025

Peck looks hard into the depths of affliction that both animated and frustrated Cole’s photography, but he does so with a slickness and efficiency that feel estranged from Cole’s annals of pain.

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Wendy Ide

Observer (UK)

Mar 9, 2025

4/5

It’s through his remarkable pictures of South Africa and Black America, however, that we really hear his voice.

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Lucy Peters

Little White Lies

Mar 8, 2025

4/5

In its strongest moments, the film is paced with real tempo – a sense of sophisticated motion that runs in tandem with its subject matter of the concrete, bustling, yet fluid cityscape.

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Shane Slater

Awards Radar

Dec 16, 2025

3/4

Through the evocative power of his photos, immersive sound effects and the eloquent narration, Ernest Cole is a mesmerizing act of resurrection through the art of cinema.

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Javier Ocaña

El Pais (Spain)

May 16, 2025

...a captivating and hypnotic documentary...[Full review in Spanish]

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Paula Arantzazu Ruiz

Cinemanía (Spain)

May 14, 2025

3/5

Peck works with diverse materials—including actor and poet Lakeith Stanfield as the narrative voice, playing Cole... to give solidity to a story replete with more than a few gaps. [Full review in Spanish]

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Raoul Peck

Director

LaKeith Stanfield

Ernest Cole

Raoul Peck

Writer

Raoul Peck

Producer

Tamara Rosenberg

Producer

Laurence Lascary

Line Producer

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Synopsis

Ernest Cole, a South African photographer was the first to expose the horrors of apartheid to a world audience. His book House of Bondage, published in 1967 when he was only 27 years old, led him into exile in NYC and Europe for the rest of his life, never to find his bearings. Raoul Peck recounts his wanderings, his turmoil as an artist and his anger, on a daily basis, at the silence or complicity of the Western world in the face of the horrors of the Apartheid regime. He also recounts how, in 2017, 60,000 negatives of his work were discovered in the safe of a Swedish bank.

Director: Raoul Peck
Producer: Raoul Peck, Tamara Rosenberg
Screenwriter: Raoul Peck, Raoul Peck
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Production Co: Arte France Cinéma
Genre: Documentary, Biography
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 22, 2024, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 17, 2025
Box Office (Gross USA): $57.9K
Runtime: 1h 46m

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