SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT
2024 - BELGIUM, FRANCE, NETHERLANDS - ENGLISH, FRENCH, DUTCH, RUSSIAN
A FILM BY JOHAN GRIMONPREZ
FEATURING: LOUIS ARMSTRONG, ANDRÉE BLOUIN, JOHN COLTRANE, DIZZY GILLESPIE, ABBEY LINCOLN, PATRICE LUMUMBA, NINA SIMONE, MALCOLM X
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United Nations, 1960: the Global South ignites a political earthquake, jazz musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crash the Security Council, Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe, and the U.S. State Department swings into action, sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup. Director Johan Grimonprez captures the moment when African politics and American jazz collided in this magnificent essay film, a riveting historical rollercoaster that illuminates the political machinations behind the 1961 assassination of Congo’s leader Patrice Lumumba. Richly illustrated by eyewitness accounts, official government memos, testimonies from mercenaries and CIA operatives, speeches from Lumumba himself, and a veritable canon of jazz icons, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat interrogates colonial history to tell an urgent and timely story of precedent that resonates more than ever in today’s geopolitical climate.
“A cool and novel way of covering history.” - National Observer
“Johan Grimonprez has made an extraordinary film, which takes archival and contemporary footage and turns it into an incisive, intensely political feature documentary.” - ClassicalFM
“A crucial historical document and a work of art, Johan Grimonprez’s Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat is a must-see.” - Cultural Mining
VIFF Centre presents Feven Kidane Quartet: Music Inspired by the Film Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat + Film Screening in partnership with The Infidels Jazz on November 16 at 7 pm at the Vancity Theatre as part of VIFF Live - Stir
5/5 N’s! “Propulsive, electrifying filmmaking that packs a punch — and a groove.” - Next
“It’s all so wrong on so many levels. It’s racism and colonialism and America and jazz…this is wild.” - My Summer Lair
“The collage of archive footage and excellent soundtrack captures the horrors of the Cold War and their injustices done to the people of the DR of Congo." - AfroToronto
“A documentary, thriller and retro music video.” - Set the Bar