Ernest Cole was exiled from his native South Africa in the late 1960s, when he was 27, after publishing a book in which he documented, in words and pictures, the horrors of life under apartheid. But even in the United States, Cole faced discrimination and documented injustices against Black people. He moved between the U.S. and Europe and continued photographing but never found his place. Cole eventually gave up on photography, and for years after his death, it seemed all his work had disappeared.

Then, in 2017, tens of thousands of negatives of Cole’s work in the U.S., Sweden, Denmark, and England were found in a bank vault in Sweden. This film is largely based on the lost photographs, which include images of Black life in Harlem and the American south, and on photographs from his South Africa book. Actor LaKeith Stanfield voices Cole’s words, which is why Cole is listed as a screenwriter for this posthumous film. The narration blends well with the artist’s heartbreaking life story, and with the impressive photographs he shot over decades.