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Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat film image; an elephant being lifted onto a ship

Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat

Showcase

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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

Director
Featuring

Marie Daulne, In Koli Jean Bofane, Patrick Cruise O’Brien

Credits
Country of Origin

Belgium/France/Netherlands

Year

2024

Language

In English, French, Russian and Dutch with English subtitles and open captions

Film Contact
18+

At Vancouver Playhouse and VIFF Centre

19+

At Fifth Avenue

150 min
Art, Music & Photography Award Winners Documentary Human Rights & Social Justice
Warboys Films

Book Tickets

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Credits & Director

Producer

Daan Milius, Rémi Grellety

Screenwriter

Johan Grimonprez

Editor

Rik Chaubet

Johan Grimonprez headshot; Soundtrack to a Coup D'Etat director

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)

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