Soundtrack To A Coup D'etat

Grimonprez’s award-winning documentary (Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation, Sundance) homes in on the ‘60s, when America sent jazz icons Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone, and Dizzy Gillespie as ‘goodwill ambassadors’ to Africa to distract from the earlier CIA-backed assassination of Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba. With stylised flair, the film shows that “America’s secret weapon is a blue note in a minor key.” Yet jazz wasn’t just a decoy. Deftly collaging archival footage and home movies, Grimonprez traces a counter history in which Black American artists protested U.S. imperialism and built international solidarity with decolonial movements.