Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
Directed by	Johan Grimonprez
Written by	Johan Grimonprez
Produced by	Daan Milius Rémi Grellety
Edited by	Rik Chaubet
Release date	22 January 2024 (2024-01-22) (Sundance)
Running time	150 minutes

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat is a documentary film directed by Johan Grimonprez released in 2024. In the film, Jazz and decolonization are entwined in a historical rollercoaster that rewrites the Cold War episode that led musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach to crash the UN Security Council in protest against the murder of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. It is 1961, six months after the admission of sixteen newly independent African countries to the UN, a political earthquake that shifts the majority vote from the colonial powers to the Global South. As Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe in indignation at the UN’s complicity in the overthrow of Lumumba, the US State Department swings into action by sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup.

Plot

One February morning in 1961, singer Abbey Lincoln and drummer Max Roach crash the UN Security Council to protest the murder of prime minister Patrice Lumumba of the newly independent Congo. Sixty yelling protesters throw punches, slam their stilettos and provoke a skirmish with unprepared guards as diplomats look on in shock. Decolonization spins the world upside down, infusing it with a sense of hope.

Six months earlier, sixteen newly independent African countries are admitted to the United Nations, triggering a political earthquake that shifts the majority vote away from the old colonial powers. The Cold War peaks as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe on his desk at the UN General Assembly, in reaction to the neo-colonial power grab unfolding in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Denouncing America’s color bar and the UN complicity in the overthrow of Lumumba, he demands immediate decolonization worldwide.

To retain control over the riches of what used to be Belgian Congo, King Baudouin of Belgium finds an ally in the Eisenhower administration, which fears losing access to one of the world’s biggest supplies of Uranium, a mineral vital for the creation of atomic bombs. Congo takes center stage to both the Cold War and the scheme for control of the UN. The US State Department swings into action: Jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong is dispatched to win the hearts and minds of Africa. Unwittingly, Armstrong becomes a smokescreen to divert attention from Africa’s first post-colonial coup, leading to the assassination of Congo’s first democratically elected leader. Malcolm X stands up in open support of Lumumba and his efforts to create a United States of Africa while also reframing the freedom struggle of African Americans as one not for civil rights but for human rights, aiming to bring his case before the UN.

As Black jazz ambassadors are performing unaware amidst covert CIA operativess, the likes of Armstrong, Nina Simone, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Melba Liston face a painful dilemma: how to represent a country where segregation is still the law of the land.

Jazz and decolonization are entwined in this forgotten episode of the Cold War, where the greatest musicians stepped onto the political stage, and downtrodden politicians lent their voices as inadvertent lead singers. This story of the undermining of African self-determination is told from the perspective of Central African Republic women’s rights activist and politician Andrée Blouin, Irish diplomat and enfant terrible Conor Cruise O’Brien, Belgian-Congolese writer In Koli Jean Bofane, and Nikita Khrushchev himself.

Cast

• Louis Armstrong, Jazz Musician
• Dizzy Gillespie, Jazz Musician
• Abbey Lincoln, Jazz Musician
• Max Roach, Jazz Musician
• Nina Simone, Jazz Musician
• Miriam Makeba, Jazz Musician
• John Coltrane, Jazz Musician
• Duke Ellington, Jazz Musician
• Melba Liston, Jazz Musician
• Eric Dolphy, Jazz Musician
• Charles Mingus, Jazz Musician
• Ornette Coleman, Jazz Musician
• Le Grand Kallé, African Rumba Musician
• Rock-a-Mambo, African Rumba Orchestra
• Dr. Nico, African Rumba Musician
• Marie Daulne "Zap Mama", Belgian-Congolese Musician
• Patrice Lumumba, Congolese Prime Minister
• Eddy Wally, Belgian Musician
• Willis Connover, Voice of America radio broadcaster
• René Magritte, Belgian Painter
• Andrée Blouin, Pan-Africanist
• Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet Chairman (1958 - 1964)
• In Koli Jean Bofane, Novelist
• Malcolm X, Human Rights Activist
• Conor Cruise O’Brien, Irish Diplomat/Writer
• Allen Dulles, Director of the CIA (1953 -1961)
• John F. Dulles, US Secretary of State (1953 - 1959)

Release and reception

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival as part of the World Documentary Competition where it won the Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation. The jury described the film as "a bold and ambitious way to grapple with a complex story. It bursts into our consciousness using multiple storytelling forms, taking a concealed history and making us see it differently."

Film critic Alissa Wilkinson published on The New York Times: “I can’t stop thinking about the remarkable ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,’ a sprawling film that’s a well-researched essay about the 1960 regime change in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the part the United States, particularly the C.I.A., played.”

The critic Murtada Elfadl published on Variety: "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."

The film has been picked as one of the "10 Best Movies From the 2024 Sundance Film Festival" by Rolling Stone. It has been shown at MoMa's Director's Fortnight and at the 2024 edition of Cinéma du Réel.

Awards

• Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival
• Audience Award at Thessaloniki Film Festival
• Best Belgian Documentary at Docville
• Best Documentary at Sofia International Film Festival