Toronto distributor Photon Films has picked up the Canadian rights to Raoul Peck’s documentary Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, which will have its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September.

Ernest Cole: Lost and Found is a French-American coproduction that chronicles the life and work of Ernest Cole (pictured),  an exile from apartheid South Africa, recognized for exposing the cruelty of apartheid through his photography.

The film also explores Cole’s, once thought lost, negatives that document segregation and the lives of Black people in New York and the U.S. south. It won Best Documentary at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where the doc had its world premiere.

Photon films will release the documentary in Canada following its screening at TIFF. Magnolia Pictures holds the U.S. rights and mk2 Films holds the international rights.

Ernest Cole: Lost and Found is produced by Peck’s prodco Velvet Film along with Arte France Cinéma.

Peck is a Haitian filmmaker and former minister of culture for the island nation. He is widely known for his documentary about writer James Baldwin, I Am Not Your Negro

Photon Films president Mark Slone described Ernest Cole: Lost and Found as “cinematic, poetic and profound” in a statement, adding that “Peck is one of the greatest living documentary filmmakers.”

Image courtesy of Photon Films