24 may 2024 ERNEST COLE: LOST AND FOUND by RAOUL PECK WINS L’ŒIL D’OR AT CANNES

ERNEST COLE: LOST AND FOUND by RAOUL PECK WINS L’ŒIL D’OR, The award for Best Documentary (Ex-aequo with The Brink of Dreams) in Cannes Film Festival

“Documentary, now more than ever, stands as the most powerful form I know to combat the demons that plague us, generation after generation. By revealing neglected realities, stories that are suppressed or silenced, and lives trampled or prevented from existing, our counter-narratives serve as beacons of light, symbols of hope that demonstrate what humanity can and does achieve.

The documentary is more than a form of art and struggle; it is a necessity.

Ernest Cole, this photographer who was celebrated and then forgotten, alone symbolizes resilience beyond even his own death by leaving us a body of work that will illuminate our souls and hearts for decades to come. Thank you for this Œil d’Or, which will perpetuate this message of life.” – RAOUL PECK

“On the horrors of the regime in his country, which forced him into exile in the USA and Europe, preventing him from ever returning to his homeland. Through a few testimonies, but even more so through the artist’s own words and the extraordinary photographic work recently found in a Swedish bank, the filmmaker tells us about the wanderings of this fragile and rebellious artist, the loneliness and despair that slowly consumed him to the point of gradually abandoning photography. This tragic fate is conveyed to us through the images and the very words of Ernest Cole, deeply moving us.” – THE JURY