SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP d’ETAT
Director Johan Grimonprez explores a moment when jazz, colonialism, and espionage collided, constructing a riveting historical rollercoaster that illuminates the political machinations behind the 1961 assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.
ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE: Best Documentary Feature Film
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FEB 28 | FRI
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SYNOPSIS
2025 Oscar® nominee for Best Documentary Feature. 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.
Director
WITH
Run Time
2 hours, 30 minutes
Released
2024
Distributed by
Kino Lorber
HEARING AND VISUAL ASSISTANCE
Assisted Listening
Some Subtitles / Open Captions
Country
Belgium, France, Netherlands
SUBTITLES
Some French, Dutch, and Russian with English Subtitles
NOT RATED
REVIEWS
“Critic’s Pick! Rhythmic and propulsive… uses every instrument cinema affords. The result, in a word, is marvelous.”
“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.”
“A stunning screed against colonial racism and state-sanctioned violence that reaches far beyond the years it directly covers… As Soundtrack to a Coup d’État brutally suggests, history is not in the past, but very much alive in our present.”
“[An] audacious and musical documentary… My absolute favorite documentary this year… I think everyone should see this movie.”