Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat presented by African Film Festival, Snug Harbor & Universal Temple of the Arts

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 Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup. Director Johan Grimonprez captures the moment when African politics and American jazz collided in this magnificent essay film, a riveting historical rollercoaster that illuminates the political machinations behind the 1961 assassination of Congo’s leader Patrice Lumumba. 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 of precedent that resonates more than ever in today’s geopolitical climate. 

About AFF
African Film Festival, Inc. (AFF) is dedicated to advancing a deeper understanding of African culture through the moving image. It offers diverse platforms for the wide distribution of African media through its flagship annual film festival and complementary year-round programming. AFF is committed to increasing the visibility and recognition of African media artists by introducing African film and culture to a broad range of audiences in the United States and abroad, while transcending economic, class, and racial barriers.

In 1990, AFF’s founders established goals that continue to guide the organization’s mission and development: to use African cinema to promote and increase knowledge and understanding of African arts, literature, and culture; to develop audiences for African films; and to expand opportunities for the distribution of African films in the United States and abroad.