How the USA used Black American music and stars to undermine African independence in the 1960s.
Soundtrack to Coup d’etat plus Q&A.
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 the Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup. Director Johan Grimonprez explores a moment when jazz, colonialism, and espionage collided, constructing a riveting historical rollercoaster that illuminates the political machinations behind the 1961 assassination of Congolese independence 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 that resonates more than ever in today’s geopolitical climate.
This is an African Odysseys screening. Previously at the BFI Southbank for 17 years, African Odysseys is now hosting films across London due to systemic racism at the BFI which cancelled the popular,monthly programme there. There will be an update at the screening.Full details HERE
Other coming films
- 60 years of Struggle Black British Civil Rights, interview with Professor Gus John
- London Recruits, undercover anti-apartheid activists from Islington
- 17 years of walking the films of Toyin Agbetu
- African women resistance leaders: Political and Spiritual
- James Baldwin at Cambridge 1968, African Odysseys update