Canadian Premiere
On January 17, 1961, seven months after Congolese independence, Patrice Lumumba, the nation’s first democratically elected prime minister, is assassinated. How did this political murder come about? And what role did Black jazz legends such as Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie play within the larger context of the era, amid the decolonization movements then sweeping across Africa? These questions are at the heart of Soundtrack to a Coup d’État, a riveting, essayistic investigation of the complex and unlikely intersections of American jazz and Cold War geopolitics.
Directed by Belgian multimedia artist Johan Grimonprez (Double Take), the film deftly weaves together archival footage, political speeches, journalistic interviews, personal memoirs, and historical studies, demonstrating how the struggle for civil rights in the United States was deeply intertwined with decolonial movements in Africa and elsewhere. Recipient of the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation at Sundance, Soundtrack pulses with anti-colonialist fervor, putting a spotlight on a dark chapter of history that has lost none of its urgency or import today.
Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation, Sundance 2024
An invigorating piece of documentary filmmaking […] It’s dense yet nuanced, managing to capture so many disparate threads that combined to result in Lumumba’s murder.
Murtada Elfadl, Variety
Media Partner
Community Partner
Marie Daulne, In Koli Jean Bofane, Patrick Cruise O’Brien
Belgium/France/Netherlands
2024
In English, French, Russian and Dutch with English subtitles and open captions
At Vancouver Playhouse and VIFF Centre
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
Daan Milius, Rémi Grellety
Screenwriter
Johan Grimonprez
Editor
Rik Chaubet
Johan Grimonprez
Johan Grimonprez’s work dances on the borders of practice and theory, art and cinema, and documentary and fiction, inviting viewers to rethink media and globalization. His projects, exhibited globally at institutions like MoMA and Tate Modern, explore contemporary issues through innovative narratives. Notable films include dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997), Double Take (2009), and Shadow World (2016). His latest film, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (2024), premiered at Sundance where it won the Cinematic Innovation Award.
Filmography: dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997); Double Take (2009); Shadow World (2016)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Sentimental Value
A once-revered director crashes back into his family’s lives, eager to recruit his daughter for a film role. When she declines, he finds a new muse in an eager but unpolished Hollywood star, sending his botched reconciliation spiraling into chaos.
The Mother and the Bear
Johnny Ma’s film stars Kim Ho-jung as a Korean woman who flies to Winnipeg when her immigrant daughter is hospitalized there. This crowd-pleaser plays up cultural differences to hilarious effect and offers a touching take on mother-daughter tension.
L'Étranger
Recreating 1940s Algeria in vivid, high contrast black and white cinematography, L'Etranger is erotic, enigmatic and brutal in equal measures, a masterful screen version of Albert Camus's insoluble classic of existential alienation.
The Chronology of Water
Kristen Stewart's fearless directorial debut is based on the best-selling memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch (Imogen Poots), a chronicle of her abusive childhood, traumatized adulthood, and escapes through swimming, drugs, sex, and ultimately writing.