Soundtrack to a Coup d’État
- Sat, Jan 4
- Sun, Jan 5
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Director: Johan Grimonprez Run Time: 150 min. Format: Digital Release Year: 2024 Language: French, Dutch, Russian with English subtitles
Starring: Abbey Lincoln, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Max Roach, Nina Simone, Patrice Lumumba
Screenwriters: Daan Milius, Johan Grimonprez
Producers: Daan Milius, Rémi Grellety
Filmmaker Johan Grimonprez in person Saturday, January 4th
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 case study of decolonization, neo-imperialism, cultural exploitation, and political murder…I don’t think I’ve seen a better movie-movie all year.”
– J. Hoberman, Film Comment
“A bravura cinematic essay that intertwines jazz, history, and the taste of a spy thriller…what Grimonprez creates here is a mind-blowingly rich tapestry of research, music, and the jazziest history lesson imaginable.”
– Tomris Laffly, Harper’s Bazaar