Ernest Cole was the first black freelance photographer in South Africa, whose early pictures laid bare the injustices of apartheid for a world audience.
Cole was exiled to the US, where his experiences were far from his expectations of the American Dream.

Raoul Peck’s (I Am Not Your Negro) search for the soul of Ernest Cole, this great yet overlooked artist, is nestled in an international thriller which traces back the steps of his turmoil, and the legacy of his timeless and poetic pictures.
Through Cole’s lens and life, Peck explores the complexities and contradictions of race.