We are thrilled to announce that Johan Grimonprez's new film SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D'ETAT will have its New York premiere at the MoMA on February 29th at 7 pm!
Jazz and decolonization are entwined in this 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 the Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup.
Featuring excerpts from My Country, Africa by Andrée Blouin (narrated by Marie Daulne aka Zap Mama), Congo Inc. by In Koli Jean Bofane, To Katanga and Back, by Conor Cruise O’Brien (narrated by Patrick Cruise O’Brien), and audio memoirs by Nikita Khrushchev. Featuring also: Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Nina Simone, Miriam Makeba, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Melba Liston, Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, Le Grand Kallé, Rock-a-Mambo, Dr. Nico, Eddy Wally, and many others…
The film received a Special Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival last month, and amazing feedback and support from the critics and the audience.
"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 DR Congo and the part the U.S., particularly the C.I.A., played."
– Alissa Wilkinson, The New York Times
"Johan Grimonprez is a brilliant manipulator of archival footage to both narrative
and critical ends… It’s a rich, complicated, and intensely troubling history,
seemingly tailor-made for Grimonprez’s dense, textured filmmaking style."
– Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine-Vulture
Included in "Ten documentaries to watch from Sundance 2024"
"A thrilling, galvanising essay film… A remarkable film — exhaustive, informative and
rigorously researched, but also crackling with energy, ideas and formal daring…
It’s a testament to the intellectual agility of Grimonprez’s approach and to the skill of editor Rik Chaubet that at no point does the picture feel unwieldy or overlong…
Intricate, ambitious and far-ranging in its scope… Political history has never felt so energising and dynamically alive as it does here."
– Wendy Ide, Screen International
Included in "10 Best Movies From the 2024 Sundance Film Festival”"
"A whirlwind history lesson filtered through an aesthetic of Blue Note album covers and connect-the-dots montages…This tour of 20th century international tensions and intelligence-agency dirty tricks may be one of the most footnoted docs to ever play the festival, and the amount of research and cross-referencing on display here is mind-boggling."
– David Fear, Rolling Stone
Included in "The 16 Must-See Movies Out of Sundance Film Festival 2024"
"A bravura cinematic essay that intertwines jazz, history, and the taste of a spy thriller… A
mind-blowingly rich tapestry of research, music, and the jazziest history lesson imaginable."
– Tomris Laffly, Harper’s Bazaar
"A vibrant film essay that marries jazz and politics… Grimonprez’s doc has an
impressionistic flair that asks audiences to actively participate in piecing everything together... It’s a stirring rally that’s uniquely cinematic in the way so many elements come together so precisely and yet still feels so organic as well." [B+]
– David Opie, IndieWire
"A formally rigorous and free-associative dive… Takes what could be dense subject matter and makes it feel very much alive… It’s a rich, concentrated documentary that utilizes
a multi-modal format that often feels novel in its deployment of images and texts,
something that isn’t usually the case for documentaries… 'Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat's format deftly juggles several narrative threads, making history feel more alive— and in sync — than many other documentaries of its kind." [A-]
– Christian Gallichio, The Playlist
"A dizzying, fast-paced, 150-minute montage about American jazz, Western imperialism, European colonization, and the assassination of Congolese president Patrice Lumumba, Belgian director Johan Grimonprez’s epic essay-film Soundtrack to a Coup d’État is not your typical Sundance documentary. Like the cinematic love child of Adam Curtis and Raoul Peck, the documentary landed in Park City like a secret weapon, exploding the minds of unsuspecting viewers."
– Anthony Kaufman, Documentary.org
"Johan Grimonprez’s magisterial documentary 'Soundtrack to a Coup d’État' isn’t just about jazz, it is jazz. Just as it isn’t only about politics, it’s a political act in itself… It’s exhilarating to watch… It is as intellectually satisfying and physically irresistible as a great jazz performance."
– Kees Driessen, Business Doc Europe
"Johan Grimonprez's complex, cacophonous 'Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat' is a
feat of design, narration, sound, and cinema… Distributors should find no problem
in selling this important work to anyone interested in documentaries and history in
territories the world over… [Grimonprez] has done a remarkable job. Soundtrack to
a Coup d’Etat is an impressive feat—a feat of design, narration, sound, and cinema."
– Oris Aigbokhaevbolo, The Film Verdict
"150 gripping minutes… Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat offers many things at once: masterful history lesson, insightful polemic, and cinematic tour de force. Come for the violent saga,
stay for the musical anecdotes. Most of all, marvel at how it is all stitched together."
– Chris Reed, Hammer to Nail
"An immersion in history, yet it also doesn’t forego being an experience
to savor as a viewer… As memorable an aesthetic experience as it is a
rigorous accounting of the Congo Crisis and the wider Cold War."
– David Katz, Cineuropa
Included in “Sundance Festival breakthroughs of 2024”
"[An] audacious and musical documentary... The filmmaker's stylistic approach is riveting."
– Aisha Harris, NPR
“My absolute favorite documentary this year… It is unlike anything
else I saw at Sundance this year, and I highly recommend it. Hopefully
it gets a distribution deal because I think everyone should see this movie.”
– Aisha Harris, NPR
"A searing video-essay… Watching the doc evokes the same intellectual and visceral feeling one gets from reading a dense work of nonfiction… Somehow it never feels its 2.5-hour runtime. Slickly edited to the rhythms of the music featured, the film always remains gripping, its presentation of information easy to digest in large part due to the sleek graphics and titles designed in the style of newspaper headlines… For many it will be an eye-opener."
– Marya E. Gates, Roger Ebert.com
"A stunning screed against colonial racism and state-sanctioned violence… As Soundtrack to a Coup d’État brutally suggests, history is not in the past, but very much alive in our present."
– Greg Nussen, Slant
"A lively, sprawling essay portrait of U.S. attempts to mask misdeeds with music and the debilitating effects of colonization."
– Jordan Raup, The Film Stage
"Immensely impressive… A truly fascinating project to experience, and its flurry
of ideas and images demands repeated viewing… A truly impactful work."
– Jason Gorber, POV Magazine
"Perhaps the most formally daring and artistically ambitious doc from Sundance’s
competitive slate… Soundtrack offers a rigorous exploration of the Congo’s past, its
struggles against colonialism, and the influences from the United Nations, the music scene,
and elsewhere that waded into African politics. Anyone who sticks with it will be rewarded."
– Pat Mullen, POV Magazine
"A tour de force of editing… While Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat displays a compelling cinematic rigour (and is painstakingly researched right down to title cards that include author names, print sources and page numbers for every quote), the quick-cut, jazz-infused atmosphere is also upbeat and fun… Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat also moves and shakes in glorious cacophony."
– Lauren Wissot, Modern Times Review
"The best doc I saw by far is Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat,
a dizzying two-and-a-half-hour array of newsreel and archival footage."
– Harlan Jacobson, WGBO
"Thrilling and riveting… Proves a healthy primer on the skeptical eye we should take towards world powers, and how even the art that’s meant to free us can be used against us." [B+]
– Clint Worthington, Consequence
"Riveting… An essay film that swings for the fences… An incredibly wild story… Consistently engaging… The most singular documentary playing at this year’s Sundance… There’s no denying the film’s sheer audacity… An entertaining ride that poses some fascinating questions."
– Sean Boelman, Disappointment Media
"An impressive feat… A visually engaging, dizzying lesson in the
history of global politics and its fascinating connection to jazz."
– Cassondra Feltus, Black Girl Nerds
"The jazz gives the picture its heartbeat, its rhythm; it’s a masterfully edited
case of form following function, medium marrying message. Soundtrack is a long
movie… but it moves like lightning, its flurry of information and insight powered by
sly, harp juxtapositions and unexpected connections. Some of this footage (much of it,
in fact) is downright shocking, but Grimonprez lingers on nothing; he’s building a case,
mounting an argument, and the end results are devastating." [B+]
– Jason Bailey, Crooked Marquee
"Meticulously researched and detailed… Instinctive and impressionistic in its
storytelling… Grimonprez’s montage approach sets rapid-fire quotes and headlines
to the movie’s era-appropriate jazz soundtrack, a testament to the artistry always
at play beneath (or in spite of) the political context upon which the art is applied… A
propulsive audiovisual experience… 'Soundtrack to a Coup d’État” feels loose,
snappy, free-flowing, almost improvised. A cinematic translation of jazz."
– Siddhant Adlakha, Truthdig
"The film compresses a great deal into its 150 minutes, which fairly fly by...
Its politics are scrupulously detailed, righteous and surely on-schedule."
– Vadim Rizov, Filmmaker Magazine
"A lyrical documentary that dives deep into the confluence of jazz,
decolonization, and the Cold War… This film not only marks a significant
milestone in Grimonprez’s career, winning the festival’s World Cinema Documentary
Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation, but also stands as a testament to the
power of historical narrative interwoven with cultural expression… A vibrant tapestry of
music, politics, and personal stories that challenge and engage the viewer on multiple
levels… Offers a multifaceted view of history that is both informative and deeply moving."
– Tambay Obenson, Akoroko
"A fusion of lively creativity and historical importance, is a feast for the eyes and the brain…
[A] fascinating doc. A masterpiece of documentary filmmaking."
– Kenny Miles, We Live Entertainment
"This story of espionage and political intrigue
is so bizarrely connected that it’s impossible not to watch."
– Stacey Yvonne, Wealth of Geeks
"An impressionistic, bold and vital documentary… A spectacular work of direction
and editing…Demands more than one viewing… Bold and impressive."
– Ricardo Gallegos, La Estatuilla
"An electrifying documentary."
– Henry Fromage, Movieboozer
The film will continue to tour the world: Thessaloniki (TIDF, March 10/11), Copenhagen (CPH/DOX March 19th), Belgian premiere (DOCVILLE, March 20th), Paris premiere (CENTRE POMPIDOU, Cinéma du Réel, March 22nd), The Hague (Movies that Matter, 24th of March), Mexico (Ambulante, April 10-11), Buenos Aires (BAFICI, April 17-28), San Francisco (SFFILM, 24-28 April), Poland (Against Gravity, May 10-19), Brussels & Ghent (Spring), San Sebastian (SSIFF, Sept 20-28), Zürich (ZIFF, Oct 3-13), Amsterdam (IDFA). To be continued...
Johan Grimonprez (born 1962) is a Belgian multimedia artist, filmmaker, and curator. He is most known for his films Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997), which The Guardian included in its article 'From Warhol to Steve McQueen: a history of video art in 30 works', Double Take (2009) and Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade (2016), based on the book by Andrew Feinstein.
