SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT Documentary

Screening to be followed by a conversation with director and writer Johan Grimonprez.

Jazz and colonial politics collide in a forgotten chapter of Cold War history in Johan Grimonprez’s electrifying essay film. The music of Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Nina Simone and other jazz legends infuse the soundscape of decolonization movements rippling through the African continent in the 1960s, and in turn, the insidious plotting of Western powers. Featuring excerpts from “My Country, Africa” by Andrée Blouin, “Congo Inc.” by In Koli Jean Bofane, “To Katanga and Back” by Conor Cruise O’Brien and audio memoirs by Nikita Khrushchev, SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT interweaves montage, typography and music to meticulously retrace a detailed historical account that led to musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach’s 1961 protest of the United Nations Security Council over the murder of Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba. Winner of the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Grimonprez’s striking indictment of postcolonial ramifications is as pertinent as ever. –Anna Li