Ernest Cole: Lost and Found

2024 1h 45m FR

🙌

7.6

BANGER

★7.6TMDB · 17

Documentary

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

More than 60,000 of Ernest Cole’s 35mm film negatives were inexplicably discovered in a bank vault in Stockholm, Sweden. Most considered these forever lost, especially the thousands of pictures he shot in the U.S. Told through Cole’s own writings, the stories of those closest to him, and the lens of his uncompromising work, the film is a reintroduction of a pivotal Black artist to a new generation and will unravel the mystery of his missing negatives.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

WhatsApp X Facebook Telegram

Where to watch · US

HuluSubscription

Amazon VideoRent

Apple TV StoreRent

Google Play MoviesRent

Google Play MoviesBuy

YouTubeBuy

Fandango At HomeBuy

Cast

LaKeith Stanfield
Ernest Cole (Voice over)
Raoul Peck
Ernest Cole (French voice over)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Raoul Peck
Languages: French, English
Countries: France, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 2 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: France, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Alexei Aigui. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Alexandra Strauss shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

LaKeith Stanfield and Raoul Peck carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt27760132 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Raoul Peck directs. Alexei Aigui scores. Alexandra Strauss cuts. Produced in France, United States of America. Dialogue in French, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 2 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, English.
3International production across 2 countries: France, United States of America.
4Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
5Original score by Alexei Aigui. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Alexandra Strauss shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7LaKeith Stanfield and Raoul Peck carry the top of the cast.
8IMDB entry: tt27760132 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 17 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
10Classified under 16 themes, including "photographer", "south africa", "apartheid", "exile".

The technical file

Original score: Alexei Aigui
Editing: Alexandra Strauss
Sound: Stéphane Thiébaut
Runtime: 105 min · 1h 45m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: FR
IMDB: Ernest Cole: Lost and Found (2024)

Also by

Raoul Peck

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Brent Marchant2024-11-30
★ 6/10
Chronicling the atrocities of social, political and ethnic persecution is undeniably a courageous and important act, especially when informing a largely unaware public of the horrendous events unfolding out of view. However, doing so can also take quite a toll on those recording such incidents, as seen in the graphic depictions captured in their accounts. Such was the case for South African photographer Ernest Cole (1940-1990), who snapped vivid, troubling images of apartheid in his homeland in the early 1960s. In doing so, he took his life in his hands when photographing what was occurring, often having to shoot photos clandestinely and on the run. But Cole nevertheless managed to record candid images of the disturbing treatment Black citizens received at the hands of a brutal, uncaring, insensitive White population, frequently with the complicity of other Africans. Cole eventually fled to the US, to which he was soon exiled by South African authorities for having published House of Bondage (1967), a book of photos depicting the barbarity of the country’s apartheid practices, a title that was subsequently banned in his homeland. Once stateside, though, Cole became disillusioned when he found nearly comparable, legally sanctioned prejudice impacting Blacks in the American South under the region’s Jim Crow Laws. That disillusionment, combined with a profound case of homesickness and the apparent onset of depression, he withdrew from the photographic work that made him famous. Over the next two decades, he moved about aimlessly, including stints in Sweden and elsewhere before returning to the US, gradually falling into obscurity (including the mysterious disappearance of his photographic archives) and becoming homeless on the streets of New York before his death in 1990. Writer-director Raoul Peck documents Cole’s biography through a largely first-person narrative detailing the protagonist’s life and outlooks through what are said to be his own words and photos, a novel approach to presenting his story. And, through the film’s first half, the production succeeds brilliantly at this. However, once past the midpoint, the picture loses its way. The chronological storytelling approach used at the outset is frequently abandoned in favor of a confusingly disjointed timeline. What’s more, Cole’s words at times become redundant, and the specifics behind his artistic withdrawal (and the associated effects of that decision) remain cryptic and unexplained, with many pieces of the puzzle conveniently missing. It’s also mystifying how Cole is somehow able to offer observations of events that took place after his demise, such as the miraculous but inexplicable rediscovery of much of his archive material in a Swedish bank vault in 2017. Regrettably, however, these changes in direction undermine all of the goodwill that the filmmaker worked so diligently to establish at the beginning. These are decidedly perplexing developments, to be sure, as they affect certain aspects of the film that worked well early on, such as its skillful editing, which just doesn’t hold up nearly as well in the back end. To its credit, several elements remain consistently solid throughout, such as the mesmerizing narration of LaKeith Stanfield as the protagonist, the superb original score by Alexei Aigui, and the fine selection of photos and archive footage used for telling Cole’s story. Had this release been put together as well in the second half as it had been in the first, this truly would have been an outstanding documentary. But, as it stands now, this feels like an offering that was only half finished, a regrettable outcome for a compelling story about a gifted, enigmatic figure.

Production companies