elc team
CineFIX presents on Thursday, August 28 at 21:00, the multi-award-winning documentary “Soundtrack to a Coup d’État” by Johan Grimonprez. A powerful film blending politics, music, and archival footage, it sheds light on the 1960 coup in Congo and the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. Through the energy of jazz and the voices of Black resistance, the film unfolds an audiovisual portrait of colonialism, power, and emancipation.
Following the screening, there will be a short Q&A session with the director.
Jazz meets decolonization in this historical journey back to the Cold War, when musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach stormed the UN Security Council in protest over the assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.
The year is 1960, just six months after sixteen newly independent African nations joined the UN, shifting the balance of voting power from colonial forces to the Global South. As Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev famously bangs his shoe in anger over the UN’s complicity in Lumumba’s overthrow, the U.S. State Department deploys jazz legend Louis Armstrong to Congo as a “jazz ambassador” to divert attention from the CIA-backed coup.
The film features excerpts from My Country, Africa by Andrée Blouin (narrated by Marie Daulne, known as Zap Mama), Congo Inc. by In Koli Jean Bofane, To Katanga and Back by Conor Cruise O’Brien (narrated by Patrick Cruise O’Brien), as well as archival audio memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev.
Awards & Distinctions
Soundtrack to a Coup d’État was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary and won the Special Jury Prize for Cinematic Innovation at the Sundance Film Festival 2024. It also received awards for Best Editing and Best Writing from the International Documentary Association (IDA), the ABC News VideoSource Award for best use of archival footage, and the Audience Award at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.
