Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck’s latest documentary, Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, is set to be featured at the 56th Visions du Réel documentary festival in Switzerland, taking place from April 4-13, 2025. Peck will be honored as a Guest of Honor at the prestigious festival, where he will conduct a masterclass and present a retrospective of his four-decade-long filmmaking career.
Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, which had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, centers on the life and work of South African photographer Ernest Cole. Cole’s 1967 book House of Bondage exposed the brutal realities of Apartheid through his poignant imagery. In his documentary, Peck gives Cole’s story a unique voice, blending the photographer’s powerful visual criticisms with poetic reflections, alongside testimonies from those who knew him. American actor LaKeith Stanfield provides the internal monologue, further deepening the emotional resonance of the work.
Known for his Oscar-nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro, which was based on James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript Remember This House, Peck has garnered international acclaim for his insightful exploration of racial and social issues. I Am Not Your Negro earned an Oscar nomination in 2017 and won both the Toronto Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award and the Audience Award at the Berlinale.
The official schedule for the 56th Visions du Réel festival will be released on March 12, 2025, a month before the event begins.