“Suggests, history is not in the past, but very much alive in our present.” - Greg Nussen, Slant Magazine
“A remarkable film: exhaustive, informative and rigorously researched, but also crackling with energy, ideas and formal daring.” - Wendy Ide, Screen International
“A bravura cinematic essay that intertwines jazz, history, and the taste of a spy thriller. What Grimonprez creates here is a mind-blowingly rich tapestry of research, music, and the jazziest history lesson imaginable.” - Tomris Laffly, Harper’s Bazaar
Opens November 22 | Jazz and geopolitics collide in this magnificent, cinematic interrogation of colonial history and the 1961 assassination of Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba. Months before Lumumba was killed, jazz great Louis Armstrong was sent on an expansive tour of Africa, organized by the State Department that, unbeknownst to the trumpeter, was using his visit as a cover to get access and information about controversial Cold War operations. Featuring music by and archival footage of Abbey Lincoln, Max Roach, Miles Davis, Nina Simone, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, and Dizzy Gillespie, SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D'ETAT is a chilling, brilliantly researched indictment of state-sanctioned violence and a history lesson that resonates now more than ever. Film Center exclusive.
Awards & Nominations
Winner - World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award (Cinematic Innovation), Sundance Film Festival
Nominee - Grand Jury Prize, World Cinema - Documentary, Sundance Film Festival
Winner - Special Mention, Best Documentary, The Hague Movies that Matter Festival
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu