ERNEST COLE: LOST AND FOUND

Online ticket sales end at 5:00 today. Additional tickets will be available at the door starting at 7:30.

This new film from Raoul Peck (Lumumba, I Am Not Your Negro) chronicles the life and work of Ernest Cole, one of the first Black free-lance news photographers in South Africa, whose early pictures, shocking at the time of their first publication, revealed to the world Black life under apartheid. Cole fled South Africa in 1966 and lived in exile in the U.S., where he photographed extensively in New York City, as well as the American South, fascinated by the ways this country could be at times so vastly different, and at others eerily similar, to his homeland. During this period, he published his landmark book of photographs denouncing the apartheid, House of Bondage which, while banned in South Africa, cemented Cole’s place as one of the great photographers of his time at the age of 27. After his death, more than 60,000 of his 35mm film negatives were inexplicably discovered in a bank vault in Stockholm, Sweden. Most considered these forever lost, especially the thousands of pictures Cole shot in the U.S. Telling his own story through his writings, the recollections of those closest to him, and the lens of his uncompromising work, the film is a reintroduction of a pivotal Black artist to a new generation.

After the film, stay for a discussion with artist Bill Batson, filmmaker Ashley Dawson, and photographer Collette Fournier. Please scroll for brief bios.

COMMUNITY PARTNERS
The Nyack Center                                     Nyack NAACP

“An elegantly wrought documentary that pulls off the trick of leaving viewers sated yet also craving more. … With its aching recognition of Cole’s creative triumphs and travails (he was, for a while, homeless), 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.” Critic’s Pick – The New York Times

“A commitment to the truth, a dream of freedom and a wily ability to circumvent the bureaucracy of apartheid administrators propelled Cole to take pictures in places few people had ever been before. … In an age of image inundation — when the violence of fascist regimes are on full display — revisiting Cole’s oeuvre serves as a reminder of the power of acknowledging what lays before you.” – Hollywood Reporter 

“Ernest Cole: Lost and Found stands as a powerful testament to Cole’s life and work. It is a reminder of the spirit required to confront and document injustice and the personal cost that often accompanies such commitment. Peck’s film is a necessary tribute that ensures Ernest’s contributions are recognized and remembered for generations. His book and photos challenges us to reflect on the enduring nature of white supremacy and the power of visual storytelling in the fight for justice. “ – Deadline

Our Guest Speakers

Bill Batson, a writer, artist and activist. Bill is the manager and artist in residence at the Nyack Farmers Market and a Hudson Valley-based communications consultant. Batson has worked for non-profits, labor unions and elected officials. Bill serves as a Trustee of Oak Hill Cemetery, the President of Friends of Mount Moor Cemetery. and a lifetime member of the Historical Society of the Nyacks. In June 2021, Bill was inducted into the Rockland County Hall Civil Rights Hall of Fame. In 2011, Batson created the Nyack Sketch log, a series of illustrated essays and books that chronicle family and local history. Batson lived in South Africa from 1994 – 1996 and has written about the fact that many of South Africa’s most odious policies, like forced removals of non-white South Africans and artificial “homelands” were patterned on American history and law and policies like Urban Renewal.

Ashley Dawson is an advocate for political justice and community empowerment, holding a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from South Carolina State University (HBCU).  Dawson is deeply involved in various advocacy groups, including Voices of Rockland, Coalition to End the New Jim Crow, and the NAACP, where she serves as Assistant Treasurer and the president of the Justice and Nurses Ministries at Pilgrim Baptist Church.  As a filmmaker and co-founder of Truth 2 Power, a production company focused on bridging community, education, and film, Dawson aims to amplify the voices of underrepresented communities through storytelling. Currently, she is working on her first fiction film, That Kid, which tells the story of a young African American boy who is unfairly judged by the professionals at his school. That Kid is set in Nyack and will premiere in late February or early March.

Collette V. Fournier has an MFA in Visual Arts from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and a BS from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Communications and Photographic Illustration.  She is the staff photography emeritus in the Campus Communications Department, and is an adjunct professor in the Photography Department at Rockland Community College since 1992. Fournier has worked as a staff photographer for The Rockland Journal-News, The Bergen Record, about…time magazine, and freelanced for The New York Post Fournier as curator served as Artist-in-Residence at the CEJJES Institute (now The Gordon Black Cultural Arts Center) in Pomona, NY for ten years has had 25 solo exhibitions and 50 group exhibitions throughout her career.  . Through Atria Books/Simon & Schuster, Kamoinge published Sweet Breath of Life, A Poetic Narrative of the African American Family by Frank Stewart with writer the late Ntozake Shange.  Collette participated in SASAA i(what does this stand for?) in the late 1980s, organized by Winnie Mandela and Dr. Karen Daughtry> She also photographed Mandela at NYC’s CIty Hall for the Bergen Record. in Brooklyn