Synopsis
Director: Johan Grimonprez
Producers: Daan Milius, Rémi Grellety
Belgium, France, 150min, 2024
“A mind-blowingly rich tapestry of research, music, and the jazziest history lesson imaginable” (Harper’s Bazaar), Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat exposes the West’s policies of extraction and exploitation in Africa, connecting Cold War intrigue, American racism, European imperialism, the 1961 assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, and jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Max Roach, who were all dispatched around the world as players in a larger geopolitical game. An astonishing mix of image, sound, and text, this revelatory documentary landed at this year’s Sundance like a grenade, exploding audience’s minds and winning a Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation. From the Oscar-nominated producer of I Am Not Your Negro, the film has already been heralded as “remarkable” (New York Times), “thrilling, galvanizing [and] crackling with energy” (Screen Daily), and “a stunning screed against colonial racism and state-sanctioned violence” (Slant).
