One among thee greatest documentaries to premiere at Sundance Movie Pageant earlier this 12 months, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat a radically and rhythmically edited look at world politics. Directed by Johan Grimonprez, the movie was picked up by Kino Lorber for a November 1 theatrical launch beginning at NYC’s Movie Discussion board and now the primary trailer has landed.
Right here’s the synopsis: “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 (dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, Shadow World) 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. 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.”
John Fink mentioned in his evaluate, “It was Mark Twain who said, “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes,” which is a method of approaching Belgian filmmaker and multimedia artist Johan Grimonprez’s sprawling, jazz-infused Soundtrack to a Coup d’État. The political essay revisits 1960, a turbulent 12 months in world affairs: Patrice Lumumba rises to energy in Congo simply as the USA, by the CIA-backed Voice of America radio community, goals to soften America’s picture aboard, sending jazz musicians Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Nina Simone, Dizzy Gillespie, Abbey Lincoln, and Max Roach to tour the world. The movie positions the jazz musicians as a type of political cupboard whereas Gillespie envisions his personal run for the White Home on TV discuss exhibits again residence. It proceeds with a moderately kinetic, defiant tone by which the jazz, breaking information, citations, and quotes interrupt the historic footage a extra normal documentary could have primarily targeted on.”
See the trailer beneath.
