‘Soundtrack To A Coup d’Etat’ Review – An Insightful, Illuminating Look At An Ugly History

Sometimes, there is a particular challenge to talking about documentary film, as an art form. There seem to be wholly different rules and aims, not just because it is not a standard narrative movie, but also depending on the particular audience member. For instance, if you made a documentary about the films of, say, Quentin Tarantino, many cinephiles might walk away not learning a lot of new details because we are so hyper-aware of the subject material. On the other hand, a “normal” person might feel enlightened, surprised, and entertained by the information presented. So, is that a successful movie? I guess it just depends.

And that brings us exactly to my one mindset while watching Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat. This movie focuses on…so many things. Colonialism in what would become the Democratic Republic of the Congo from the country of Belgium, American Jazz musicians, general racism, the United States involvement in coups and assassination attempts, you name it. This is both the film’s greatest weakness and its greatest strength. There is no doubt that there is an untold story here that is worth the effort to learn about, and yet, it feels mildly disconnected. There easily could be a 6-hour documentary series in which this story is fleshed out even more. 

For clarity, the general focus of the film is on the events that led musicians Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln to interrupt a UN Meeting to protest the wrongful killing of a political leader from the Congo, Patrice Lumumba. The style of the documentary, directed by Johan Grimonprez (a Belgian multimedia artist) is both scattered and focused. On first watch, it may take a moment to figure out the connections and the reasons for visual choices. There are modern commercials, memoirs, home videos, and musical performances all folded into this narrative; but by the time the credits roll, it does link together in a satisfying way. 

One thing that the film manages very well is to remove the siloed nature of racial conflict. Keeping in mind my own background as a white man, it is easy to see the American story of horrific racism as something that only happens here. Certainly, our history of slavery makes it particularly disgusting and heinous. But racism is not purely American. This story of the white world’s desire to pillage African land and peoples was one I was completely unaware of. Using recordings of Malcolm X, as well as the music of important jazz musicians, such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, Grimonprez finds his way to connect history, entertainment, and the modern impacts of colonial theft. 

In one particularly moving sequence, Louis Armstrong sings his song “Black and Blue.” The film cuts between images of his performance and video of violence perpetrated against Black bodies in the Congo. As Armstrong sings “How would it end ain’t got a friend/My only sin is my skin/What did I do to be so black and blue,” the lyrics mesh with these horrendous images perfectly. Through this stylistic choice, Grimonprez is able to accomplish two different goals. First, he connects the Black American struggle to that happening in the Congo during the 1960s. And second, he brings about the universal nature of music, which serves as purposeful connective tissue throughout the rest of the film. Armstrong (nicknamed “Satchmo”)  in particular, whom many know only through positivity like “What a Wonderful World” is shown correctly to be not only massively popular but also a revolutionary figure.

This story is a desperately painful one, and it is important to note that the director being Belgian shows a willingness to uncover the secrets and lies of his own background. None of us like to detail our own complicity and self-disgust, but it is a necessary process. We cannot move forward from the past by simply burying it. We must own it. One cannot help but think of the money funneled towards current genocides by our own country. We may not have secret CIA operatives plotting the assassination of world leaders (that we know of) but we also must be aware of the imperfections of our own system. If we are not able to stand up on a worldwide stage, how can we say anything has changed in the last 60 years? History is full of important lessons and there are many to be found in Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat.

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat is currently playing at New York’s Film Forum courtesy of Kino Lorber. The film will expand to Los Angeles on 11/15 and Chicago on 11/22 with further expansion to follow.