Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat: A Productive Misunderstanding

Image Source: Poster Art – Fair Use

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, originally a four-hour film, is still a very long 151-minute experiential and observational film by Johan Grimonprez. In my view, the filmmaker oversimplified and at times fabricated the intersections of US Civil Rights, jazz, literature, Cold War diplomacy, and the complicated domestic politics of Congo to focus on decolonization and the CIA’s murder of Patrice Lumumba in 1961. This is a documentary film that uses dramatic overlay.