SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT
Belgium, France, Netherlands / 2024 / 150'
SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT
Jazz and decolonization are entwined in this historical rollercoaster that rewrites the Cold War episode that led musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach to crash the UN Security Council in protest against the murder of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. It is 1961, six months after the admission of sixteen newly independent African countries to the UN, a political earthquake that shifts the majority vote from the colonial powers to the Global South. As Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe in indignation at the UN’s complicity in the overthrow of Lumumba, the gline US State Department swings into action by sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup.
Director: Johan Grimonprez
Script: Johan Grimonprez
Photography: Jonathan Wannyn
Editing: Rik Chaubet
Sound: Ranko Pauković
Production: Daan Milius, Rémi Grellety
Co-production: Katja Draaijer, Frank Hoeve
Selected Filmography:
- Blue Orchids (2017)
- Every Day Words Disappear (2016)
- Double Take (2009)
- Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997)
Festivals & Awards: Academy Awards, USA (2025), Sundance FF – World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation (2024), San Sebastián International FF (2024), CPH:DOX, Denmark (2024), Ji.hlava International Documentary FF, Czechia (2024), IDFA, Netherlands (2024)
Screening:
August 27 / 23:00 / Kurshumli an
Tickets:
- Buy tickets for live screening HERE.
