Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat.
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.
Record details
- Physical Description: 1 online resource (streaming video file) (150 minutes): digital, .flv file, sound
- Publisher: [San Francisco, California, USA] : Films We Like, 2024.
Content descriptions
General Note: | Title from title frames. Film In Process Record. |
Participant or Performer Note: | Abbey Lincoln, Andrée Blouin, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone |
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note: | Originally produced by Films We Like in 2024. |
System Details Note: | Mode of access: World Wide Web. |
Search for related items by subject
Genre: | Documentary films. |
Other Formats and Editions
Electronic resources
https://innisfilidealab.kanopy.com/node/15211498
- A Kanopy streaming video