FRI 28 FEB
Coming Soon to
Chelsea Theater
150 mins |
Rated
TBC
Directed by Johan Grimonprez
Starring Nina Simone, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Dag Hammarskjöld, Nikita Khrushchev, Patrice Lumumba, Andrée Blouin
Best Documentary Nominee - 97th Academy Awards
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 action, sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect 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.
Winner: Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation, World Cinema Documentary - 2024 Sundance Film Festival
"Critic’s Pick! Rhythmic and propulsive... uses every instrument cinema affords. The result, in a word, is marvelous." – The New York Times
“Next time someone wistfully insists, “They don’t make ’em like they used to,” why “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.” – Harper’s Bazaar
“A remarkable film – exhaustive, informative and rigorously researched, but also crackling with energy, ideas and formal daring.” – Screen International
“A stunning screed against colonial racism and state-sanctioned violence that reaches far beyond the years it directly covers… As Soundtrack to a Coup d’État brutally suggests, history is not in the past, but very much alive in our present.” – Slant Magazine
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Best Documentary Nominee - 97th Academy Awards
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 action, sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect 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.
Winner: Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation, World Cinema Documentary - 2024 Sundance Film Festival
"Critic’s Pick! Rhythmic and propulsive... uses every instrument cinema affords. The result, in a word, is marvelous." – The New York Times
“Next time someone wistfully insists, “They don’t make ’em like they used to,” why “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.” – Harper’s Bazaar
“A remarkable film – exhaustive, informative and rigorously researched, but also crackling with energy, ideas and formal daring.” – Screen International
“A stunning screed against colonial racism and state-sanctioned violence that reaches far beyond the years it directly covers… As Soundtrack to a Coup d’État brutally suggests, history is not in the past, but very much alive in our present.” – Slant Magazine