Mk2 Films has acquired international rights to Raoul Peck’s Untitled Ernest Cole Documentary, with Magnolia Pictures taking rights for North America.
Mk2 will offer the project to buyers at this week’s Cannes market. Magnolia, which previously distributed Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro, is planning a theatrical release for the new film.
Cole was the first Black freelance photographer in South Africa and his early pictures revealed the conditions of Black life under apartheid to the world. He fled South Africa in 1966 and lived in exile in the US, where he photographed in New York City and the South.
Peck’s Velvet Film will collaborate with the Ernest Cole Family Estate on the project and has secured exclusive access to the family’s archive, including images never previously seen by the public. Peck and Tamara Rosenberg will produce the film, which will use Cole’s own writings and photographs as well as stories from those close to him.
Magnolia Pictures co-CEO Dori Begley commented: “The opportunity to serve auteurs like the great Raoul Peck is why we do this work. With his incomparable vision and integrity as our guide, team Magnolia can’t wait to help share the extraordinary story of this essential artist with audiences.”
Peck added: “Ernest Cole’s long and, at times, painful and tedious journey in America brings me back to a period of my life when my political commitment and artistic stamina were forged. I profoundly feel, cherish, and treasure his human eye on the facts of life and his piercing acuity over our terrible contradictions.”
Fionnuala Jamison, mk2 Films’ managing director, said: “The combination of a powerful human rights story, Ernest Cole’s own struggles as an exiled artist, and the mystery around his negatives and legacy promise to deliver an incredibly moving and thrilling film from the masterful documentarian.”
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