Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat

A black-and-white photo shows three formally dressed individuals seated in the back of a car at night. Two men wear suits and ties, and a woman in a strapless dress and sunglasses sits between them.

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. The result is a revelatory documentary 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. Sundance award-winner 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.

Free admission! Sponsored by the Institute for African Development at the Einaudi Center for International Studies.

Part of our "Campus Collaboration" series. In English, French, Dutch, Russian with English subtitles. Courtesy of Kino Lorber.