Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat

It's a documentary on the birth of the Republic of Congo and the assassination of its first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba. The approach incorporates much film footage from about 1950 to the early 1960s, juxtaposing the music and comments of leading jazz musicians of the era with contemporary news footage. Particular emphasis is placed on the various political machinations at the United Nations by Nikita Khrushchev, Dwight Eisenhower, Adlai Stevenson, and other world leaders, including Fidel Castro and Malcolm X.

At some levels, "Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat" is an intelligent and brilliant work with an incredible musical score. However, it takes too long to make the fundamental connection between the American jazz musicians and Patrice Lumumba. When it finally does, it's highly effective, but a half hour could easily have been edited from the final production.

SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D'ETAT (2024) Nominated for Best Documentary Feature. Johan Grimonprez' dynamic, densely layered Documentary is ostensibly about the Coup in the Republic of Congo in 1960 which dethroned Patrice Lumumba, but it extends further into the cultural and long-term political instability in the region.

Grimonprez blends Jazz and Blues with readings from several works on the subject as well as a generous amount newsreel footage to provide the 'Soundtrack'. It is the music which provides the ebb and flow of the film by the likes of Nina Simone, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Abbey Lincoln, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman. Max Roach's impassioned drumming is its blistering heartbeat. The graphics of the title card and on the posters evoke the style of Jazz and Blues records of that era.

Grimonprez' work is rigorously sourced with on screen annotations and references. Sometimes, it's all a bit too fast and furious to take it all in, but this is a highly engaging Doc which is riveting for its full 150 minutes. Many of the musicians were in the forefront of exposing the U. S. government's involvement in the overthrow. The Soviet Union's Nikita Khrushchev of all persons comes off as one of independent Congo's greatest defenders (of course, with major ulterior motives of his own). The clips of his colorful U. N. antics are given significantly better context here than usual. In addition to the CIA, the usually thought of as peaceful nation of Belgium stands as the villains of the piece.

SOUNDTRACK OF A COUP D'ETAT dares to be 'entertaining', but it's never less than thoughtful, thorough and provocative. A sterling Documentary.

This documentary is a serious testament to the archivist's art as it pieces together an impressive array of imagery of the great and the good of American Jazz and combines that with some intimate actuality of the turbulence ongoing in the Congo as it strived for independence. Why might anyone care about the future of an impoverished African nation that had all but bankrupted it's "owner" - King Leopold II of Belgium? Well that's because it holds enormous deposits of the uranium required by both the West and the Soviets - and that's just the start of it's reputedly $23 trillion worth of mineral assets. Emerging from the populace to lead this new country is Patrice Lumumba. He's an articulate man who unlike so many who took their nations out of colonial-hood, is not constantly bedecked in medals and ribbons with armed men at his back. What we see over the next couple of hours uses a superb musical soundtrack from the likes of Nina Simone, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis - you name it, to provide a backdrop to CIA shenanigans, petulant strops from Nikita Khruschev, accusatory comments from just about everyone from Malcolm X to Fidel Castro and some extremely cynical insights into the Eisenhower presidency's approach to this man; to the problems he may bring or solve and to the precedents he was bound to set. As you'll expect, this freedom fight is tied-in closely with the fight for desegregation and equal/human rights for African American people and it uses that platform to illustrate just how ineffective the US-dominated United Nations was at brokering anything akin to a peaceable solution that was in anyway neutral or beneficial to the populace of this vast territory. The secession of Katanga - where the mining was at it's more lucrative and the privatisation of it's principal enterprise ensured that the West still pulled the strings, sets the tone for the final phase of the history and it's tragic conclusion. I knew some of this but I wasn't aware of just how exploitatively the American administration used unwitting people, many globally recognised household hames and who were still treated as second-class citizens (if citizens at all) at home, to peddle a political message of brotherhood and unity in Africa and at just how effective these deceptions were whilst the CIA experimented with new ways of assassinating. There's an arrogance here that's writ large as the local population are treated with a casual disdain that makes your flesh crawl. Fans of jazz will love the accompaniment which mixes some characterful performances of the more famous pieces of music from the genre with some more specifically written and delivered themes that directly address the issues of slavery, exploitation and freedom that led to a protest within the impotent General Assembly chamber itself. It is curious that many of the criticisms levelled at the UN in the mid 1960s are just as valid today, and that little progress as been made changing the format that was established by world powers in the 1940s whose "permanent" roles embedded in the political infrastructure remain unaffected sixty years later. This isn't a film about corporate greed, it's one about political influence and domination and has been thoughtfully put together to open a hornet's nest. Did you know that Dizzy Gillespie actually ran for US President?

The documentary is a mishmash of beautiful composed edits using American jazz music to carry the content through its highs and lows.

There's 2 hours plus of significant content. That can be daunting to those unfamiliar with US foreign policy in Congo or in the western reactions to post colonialism. Still it's beautifully done. And it will hopefully raise more awareness in America's use of soft power especially in foreign country regime change.

Congo is the main focus of the documentary but it's a symbol of many other countries including those in Africa, Latin America and Asia. If anything this should start conversations in how entertainers are used by governments to fulfill foreign affairs.

During my life on the European continent, in a wealthy country that has benefitted enormously through the ages by suppressing other cultures, the stories of peoples enduring this suppression have been supressed enough that a story of this magnitude can suddenly struck you into silence.

A breathtaking musical journey depicting the rise and fall of the first Premier of Congo, Mr. Patrice Lumumba, showing the atrocities that the powers that be had to commit to steer history into a different direction.

I would like to implore anyone who hasn't seen this, to view this at your own peril, because this powerful documentary can blow your mind.