Hello; My Name Is Ernest Cole: “In South Africa, I was afraid to be arrested. In the United States, I was afraid to be killed, but I never ceased photographing, even for a single minute.” So says Ernest Cole comparing South Africa’s Apartheid to America’s South in the mid-1960s.
As you can wisely deduce from the trailer: Ernest Cole was a black photographer who grew up in South Africa and photographed The Apartheid.
South Africa’s Apartheid ran from 1948 to 1994; mostly concluding when anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela became the country’s first Black President. And while I kinda but not really knew about The Apartheid; I’d never heard of photographer Ernest Cole until I saw this compelling documentary at TIFF 2024, this past September.
What Jamel Shabazz is to hip hop in New York City; Ernest Cole is to South Africa’s apartheid.
This documentary and Cole’s work demand acknowledgement.
Cole died of pancreatic cancer, back in February 1990—the month of Nelson Mandela’s release from Robben Island—tragically Cole died as he lived with Apartheid.
Often, we don’t see the successful conclusion of every significant fight we start. The documentary acknowledges Ernest Cole was a mostly forgotten figure.
However, (and thankfully!) the documentary’s title: Lost and Found applies to Cole’s work.
In 2016 when, quite randomly, a Swedish bank discovered 60,000 of his negatives in its vaults. Cole’s discovered photos are stunning. The distinct ability of photographs to fully cement history remains impressive. We post shallow selfies and last night’s dinner to IG for substandard likes, however when a lens is aimed well, what it can capture and confirm is striking.
As the doc’s description reveals: “Drawing upon a trove of unpublished images, this moving portrait of South African photographer Ernest Cole from director Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) offers a harrowing history of Apartheid and chronicles the life of an artist in exile.” Boom!
Indeed. Ernest Cole: Lost and Found is the latest documentary from filmmaker Raoul Peck who continues to use his well-aimed camera to examine colonialism: James Baldwin in I Am Not Your Negro (2017) and the theft of Black land in Silver Dollar Road (2023). Raoul Peck’s documentary work is dope! I enjoy the stories he tells even though there are moments where things get harsh.
This is a fantastic photography documentary narrated by Lakeith Stanfield.
It’s heavy and it’s dark but it’s Must See TV. Ernest Cole: Lost and Found is streaming on Hulu.
Sammy Verdict: A super dark reintroduction to South Africa’s apartheid-era, a reminder that photography is better when it’s not deployed in the service of vapid selfies and an invitation to engage with a compelling creative.
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Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair podcast: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
