ONE NIGHT ONLY!
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.
Shortlisted for the Academy Awards' Best Feature Documentary category and winner of Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation, World Cinema Documentary at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival
"Critic’s Pick! Rhythmic and propulsive... uses every instrument cinema affords. The result, in a word, is marvelous." —The New York Times
"A case study of decolonization, neo-imperialism, cultural exploitation, and political murder…I don’t think I’ve seen a better movie-movie all year." —J. Hoberman, Film Comment
"One of the year's very best documentaries...a riveting, deeply researched archival mixtape with the breadth of a period epic, the soul of an activist march and the pulse-racing energy of a cloak-and-dagger thriller." —LA Times
Directed by Johan Grimonprez
Featuring Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Abbey Lincoln, Max Roach, Nina Simone, Miriam Makeba, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Malcolm X, Nikita Kruschev, Dag Hammarskjöld, Patrice Lumumba
United States | English | 2024 | Documentary | 150 minutes | NR
Film Prices
Lincoln Theatre Members get $2.00 off on the following prices with discount code:
General: $11.00
Seniors, Students, and Active Military: $10.00
Children 12 and under: $8.50
All prices include a $2.00 Preservation Fee that goes directly into our capital account for the preservation of the Lincoln Theatre and its programs.