The result of over five years of Super-8 and 16mm filming on New York City streets, Lost Book Found melds documentary and narrative into a complex meditation on city life. The piece revolves around a mysterious notebook filled with obsessive listings of places, objects, and incidents. These listings serve as the key to a hidden city: a city of unconsidered geographies and layered artifacts—the relics of low-level capitalism and the debris of countless forgotten narratives. The project stems from the filmmaker's first job in New York—working as a pushcart vendor on Canal Street. As usual, Cohen shot in hundreds of locations using unobtrusive equipment and generally without any crew. Influenced by the work of Walter Benjamin.
Directed by Jem Cohen
IMDB
N/A
Letterboxd
3.8 / 5
Crew
Jem Cohen
Director
Popular Reviews
4 reviews
hannah louise
6.0★ · 03/04/26
i love when poetry
i love when poetry
Patrick SD
9.9★ · 08/19/25
For some odd reason this reminds of The Batman. I think it’s the tone of the narration and the cityscapes but Lost Book Found really has a similar vibe to The Batman. I would not be surprised if Matt Reeves watched and took inspiration from Cohen
For some odd reason this reminds of The Batman. I think it’s the tone of the narration and the cityscapes but Lost Book Found really has a similar vibe to The Batman. I would not be surprised if Matt Reeves watched and took inspiration from Cohen