July 1960 was an inopportune time for Patrice Lumumba, the barely 35-year-old prime minister of the Congo, to visit Washington, D.C. His country had become independent from Belgium only on June 30. Within days, the army had mutinied, Belgian forces had intervened without permission, a province had seceded, and the U.N. had sent in a massive peacekeeping operation. And amid the chaos, Lumumba had made a troubling appeal to the Soviet Union, suggesting that his fledgling nation might require its help…
The trip would turn out to be the beginning of the end for Lumumba… [He] didn’t know it, but his very life was at stake. — Stuart A. Reid*
Such is the context of Johan Grimonprez’s remarkable new film SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT, a vividly expressionistic overview of the early years of African autonomy and the birth of international Black Power. During the handover ceremony marking Congo “independence,” Lumumba was bracingly blunt when describing to Belgian dignitaries in the room—including King Baudouin— the murderous consequences of their colonizing administration. And their work was far from done, as the global powers-that-be had no intention of losing control of Congo’s rich uranium stores, worth billions even in the 1960s.
SOUNDTRACK interpolates texts, photographs, and audiovisual clips of figures ranging from Andrée Blouin and Malcolm X to Dag Hammarskjöld and Allen Dulles. Playing throughout, interpretive performances by jazz giants Abbey Lincoln, Max Roach, Nina Simone, Miriam Makeba, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Melba Liston, Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, and Ornette Coleman comment on the narrative. Explaining how some of biggest stars (Louis Armstrong and, to an extent, Dizzy Gillespie) became unwitting dupes as the U.S government, once again, endeavored to art wash Cold War espionage and assassination, this kaleidoscope of sights, sounds, and trenchant critique rewards multiple viewings.
Join Grimonprez at AFI Fest 2024 for the Los Angeles premiere of SOUNDTRACK, where the artist will participate in a post-screening conversation. Info and links below.
SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT
Directed by Johan Grimonprez
AFI Fest presented by Canva
Friday, October 25, at 8:15 pm
Chinese 6 Theatres
6801 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles
fest.afi.com/2024/soundtrack-to-a-coup-detat
skny.com/artists/johan-grimonprez
*Stuart A. Reid, “How the U.S. Issued Its First Ever Order to Assassinate a Foreign Leader,” Politico, October 17, 2023, excerpt from Reid, The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2023). Copyright © 2023 Stuart A. Reid.
politico.com/magazine/patrice-lumumba
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (2024), directed by Johan Grimonprez, from top: Ambroise Boimbo, after grabbing the sword of King Baudouin I of Belgium (standing in car in white uniform); Patrice Lumumba; Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat U.S. poster, depicting pan-African activist Andrée Blouin (center) in car seat; Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat scene; Nikita Khrushchev and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Images courtesy and © the filmmaker and Kino Lorber.