Ernest Cole: Lost and Found
Documentary by Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) about the life and work of Ernest Cole, whose photography captured the impact of apartheid on Black South Africans. Winner of the L’Oeil d’or (award for best documentary) at Cannes.
In the late 1960s, photographer Ernest Cole’s disturbing photobook House Of Bondage gave an insider’s perspective on apartheid and its impact on Black South Africans like himself. It shocked the world. In the 1980s Cole fell into oblivion, however, partly because his photographic negatives appeared to have been lost. But in 2017 many of them were rediscovered.
Director Raoul Peck looks back on Cole’s work and life through the photographer’s lens. The voice-over is based on texts written by Cole, who died in poverty, but the main role is reserved for his phenomenal photography.
While living in exile in the United States he continued to photograph Black communities in urban and rural areas. Euphoria about the freedom he anticipated in the US gave way to disappointment and homesickness. Publishers sadly didn’t recognize the urgency of his work; his observations of increasing similarities between racism in the US and South Africa was clearly an unwelcome message. Yet Cole’s observations have only gained in value with time. (source: www.idfa.nl)
Prior to the screening of January 14, Dr Ulrike Mueller - senior lecturer and sociologist at UCM - will give an introduction to this documentary. In her work, she focuses on how systems of privilege, more specifically whiteness and nationality, affect people and how they live their lives. Afterwards there will be a discussion. This programma is in English.