Raoul Peck: “I wanted to give Ernest Cole a voice again”

The director looks back on the making of his remarkable documentary dedicated to this South African photographer who was the first to reveal to the world the horrors of Apartheid

When was the idea of ​​devoting a documentary to Ernest Cole born?

Raoul Peck : Ernest Cole accompanied part of my life, without being aware of the immense artist that he was. When I was a young Haitian in exile who went to study in Berlin at the age of 17 and, there, like all my very politicized friends, I used Cole's photos for our fights and our demonstrations. It was only a little later that I discovered his book House of bondagewhich constitutes the backbone of my documentary and where he was the first to denounce to the eyes of the whole world the horrors of Apartheid. He was only 27 years old at the time and was forced into permanent exile from his country. It was a real shock for me. But to answer your question precisely, I am not strictly speaking the trigger for this documentary. It all starts the day when, after seeing I am not your negrohis family calls me to see if I would like to make a film about him

Do you say yes immediately?

No because I am then in the middle of my documentary series Exterminate all these brutes. So I don't have any materially. But I will stay in touch with them and when they explain to me that they are in the process of repatriating all of Cole's archives to South Africa, I help them finance the immense digitization work he is embarking on. And then, time will do its job, as with all my films basically. And I'm really going to get started when, beyond the work of memory so that this immense artist does not plunge into oblivion, I see a way to make Ernest Cole's work resonate with today.

And for this documentary, you choose to tell it in the first person singular. For what reason?

Precisely to give voice to Ernest Cole who was deprived of it for so many years. To me, only Cole could relate to Cole. And to write this text, I will obviously first immerse myself in House of bondage. And I will rediscover, beyond the beauty of the photographs, the incredible power of this text. The quality of his writing. His poetry tinged with quite irresistible humor. The finesse of his analysis of South Africa – his reading in particular of a country fractured just as much, if not more, by class differences than by race – and on the reasons why the Western world did not move a little finger to change things. And at the same time, I will ask members of my team to travel the world to meet people who knew Cole so that they can gather their confidences which would allow me to nourish this text

Text to which you therefore lend your voice while for I am not your negroyou entrusted to Joey Starr, that of James Baldwin…

It was not planned but, in the short time allocated to us for the recording, I quickly understood that I was not going to be able to direct as I wished the actor friend to whom I had appealed. It was not necessary to play Cole but to live him. And for having written every line of these texts, for having spent all these months in Cole's life, I thought I would be the most likely to get what I was looking for. Although I admit that the work of Lakeith Stanfield (Sorry to bother you) in the American version, worthy of that of Samuel L. Jackson for that of I am not your negroimpressed me. Hearing it, I saw all the places where I could have done even better.

What is your greatest pride with this film?

No doubt to have put Ernest Cole back in the spotlight. As I was able to do with Lumumba or James Baldwin in my previous films. This is undoubtedly the main driving force behind my work. Prevent these actions, these works from disappearing little by little.

Ernest Cole, photographer. By Raoul Peck. Duration: 1h46. Released December 25, 2024

Ernest Cole, photographer– book published by Denoël