Belgium, France and Netherlands / 2024 / 150mins / Documentary / English, French, Dutch and Russian

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 acton, sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to defect 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.

Johan Grimonprez

Johan Grimonprez (b. 1962, Roeselare, Belgium) is a flmmaker and artst known for exploring media, history, and identty. He studied at the School of Visual Arts and the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York. His acclaimed flm dial H-I-S-T-OR-Y (1997) premiered at Documenta X and Centre Pompidou, examining airplane hijackings and media spectacle. Other notable works include Looking for Alfred (2005), which won multple European media awards, Double Take (2009), and Shadow World (2016), which won Best Documentary at Edinburgh and Valladolid. His work is held in major collectons like Centre Pompidou and Tate Modern. Grimonprez splits his time between Belgium and New York, where he teaches at the School of Visual Arts. Learn More