Ernest Cole: Lost and Found

I wasn't that acquainted with Cole's work. It's quite extraordinary and on full display in this film.

Tonally correct in every possible way.

Peck spends so much time unpacking Cole's inner life from his diaries and notebooks, because while the photos may live on in archives, those are the stories most at risk of disappearing from the frame.

Peck’s film stands as a requisite biography, but also a personal homage: The response of one politically conscious artist to the call of another.

The film paints a vivid portrait of what life was like for Black South Africans under apartheid.

Oscar-nominated actor Lakeith Stanfield hauntingly whispers Cole’s thoughts and observations in touching voiceovers. It makes you feel like Cole is in the room.

Fascinating photography, even if the documentary isn't.

[Raoul Peck's] soaring thank you to the far-sighted young man who risked life and limb to document the horrors of Apartheid in South Africa is electric, with LaKeith Stanfield an excellent narrator.

Ernest Cole: Lost and Found is a meaningful tribute to South African photographer Ernest Cole. However, it would’ve been a better documentary if it investigated how 60,000 negatives of Cole’s photos were secretly hidden in a Swiss bank for decades.

Ernest Cole: Lost and Found is a melding of art, social commentary, and biography working together in harmony, with each layer nicely informing everything else around it.