Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat

Sep 11, 2024

2h 30m

★ 7.4

Overview

Jazz and decolonization are intertwined in a powerful narrative that recounts one of the tensest episodes of the Cold War. In 1960, the UN became the stage for a political earthquake as the struggle for independence in the Congo put the world on high alert. The newly independent nation faced its first coup d'état, orchestrated by Western forces and Belgium, which were reluctant to relinquish control over their resource-rich former colony. The US tried to divert attention by sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to the African continent. In 1961, Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba was brutally assassinated, silencing a key voice in the fight against colonialism; his death was facilitated by Belgian and CIA operatives. Musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach took action, denouncing imperialism and structural racism. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev intensified his criticism of the US, highlighting the racial barriers that characterized American society.

Genres

Documentary

History

Music

Production Companies

Onomatopee Films

Warboys Films

Zap-O-Matik

ZKM Karlsruhe

BALDR

RTBF

VRT

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat Trailers

Cast

Self (archive footage)

Patrice Lumumba

Self (archive footage)

Louis Armstrong

Self (archive footage)

Nikita Khrushchev

Self (archive footage)

Dizzy Gillespie

Self (archive footage)

Andrée Blouin

Self (archive footage)

Abbey Lincoln

Self (archive footage)

Max Roach

Self (archive footage)

Malcolm X

Self (archive footage)

Nina Simone

Self (archive footage)

John Coltrane

Self (archive footage)

Duke Ellington

Self (archive footage)

Miriam Makeba

A roller-coaster ride through the history of American exploitation films, ranging from Roger Corman's sci-fi and horror monster movies, 1960s beach movies, H.G. Lewis' gore-fests, William Castle's schlocky theatrical gimmicks, to 1970s blaxploitation, pre-"Deep Throat" sex tease films, Russ Meyer's bosom-heavy masterpieces, etc, etc. Over 25 interviews of the greatest purveyors of weird films of all kind from 1940 to 1975. Illustrated with dozens of films clips, trailers, extra footage, etc. This documentary as a shorter companion piece focusing on exploitation king David F. Friedman.

6.5

Charlie Wilson's War

Dec 19, 2007

In the 1980s U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson, Texas socialite Joanne Herring and CIA agent Gust Avrakotos form an unlikely alliance to boost funding for Afghan freedom fighters in their war against invading Soviets. The trio's successful efforts to finance these covert operations contributes to the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

6.2

The Investigation

Jul 25, 2024

Peter Weiss’ monumental 1965 stage play, among the greatest artworks on the Holocaust, condenses the testimonies of witnesses and the accused during the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials of 1963-1965. This ultra-faithful film adaptation builds, across four hours, in its intensity and graphically described detail.

10.0

Bertha Lutz: Women and the U.N. Charter

Mar 9, 2021

BERTHA LUTZ: WOMEN AND THE U.N. CHARTER reveals the important and unknown role of a Brazilian biologist and feminist in ensuring that gender issues were addressed at the basis of the United Nations.

8.0

1968: A Year of War, Turmoil and Beyond

Jul 20, 2018

The Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the May events in France, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, the Prague Spring, the Chicago riots, the Mexico Summer Olympics, the presidential election of Richard Nixon, the Apollo 8 space mission, the hippies and the Yippies, Bullitt and the living dead. Once upon a time the year 1968.

7.8

Silenced

Nov 19, 2014

Three National Security whistleblowers fight to reveal the darkest corners of America's war on terror, challenging a government that is increasingly determined to maintain secrecy.

7.7

Hotel Rwanda

Dec 22, 2004

Inspired by true events, this film takes place in Rwanda in the 1990s when more than a million Tutsis were killed in a genocide that went mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world. Hotel owner Paul Rusesabagina houses over a thousand refuges in his hotel in attempt to save their lives.

7.5

Walk the Line

Sep 13, 2005

A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.

7.3

President Kennedy's Birthday Salute

May 19, 1962

President Kennedy's birthday celebration was held at the third Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962, and more than 15,000 people attended, including numerous celebrities. The event was a fundraising gala for the Democratic Party. Features Marilyn Monroe singing to JFK.

7.2

Radical Evil

Jan 17, 2014

Das radikal Böse is a German-Austrian documentary that attempted to explore psychological processes and individual decision latitude "normal young men" in the German Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and SD, which in 1941 during the Second World War as part of the Holocaust two million Jewish civilians shot dead in Eastern Europe.

7.0

Mr. Holland's Opus

Dec 29, 1995

In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.

7.9

Virunga

Nov 7, 2014

Virunga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is Africa’s oldest national park, a UNESCO world heritage site, and a contested ground among insurgencies seeking to topple the government that see untold profits in the land. Among this ongoing power struggle, Virunga also happens to be the last natural habitat for the critically endangered mountain gorilla. The only thing standing in the way of the forces closing in around the gorillas: a handful of passionate park rangers and journalists fighting to secure the park’s borders and expose the corruption of its enemies. Filled with shocking footage, and anchored by the surprisingly deep and gentle characters of the gorillas themselves, Virunga is a galvanizing call to action around an ongoing political and environmental crisis in the Congo.

7.0

The Spacewalker

Apr 6, 2017

March 1965. In the heat of the Cold War, the USA and the USSR are competing for supremacy in space. What both superpowers aim for in this race, is to be the first to have a man walk in outer space. To accomplish that, no price is too high and no risk is too great. Now it’s up to the unlikely duo of a seasoned war veteran and a hot-headed test-pilot to fulfill this mission. Two men in a tiny spaceship, without proper testing, facing the complete unknown. They were supposed to do what no man has done before—and no man imagined what would happen next.

7.4

The Magdalene Sisters

Aug 30, 2002

Three young Irish women struggle to maintain their spirits while they endure dehumanizing abuse as inmates of a Magdalene Sisters Asylum.

6.8

In the Valley of Elah

Sep 14, 2007

A career officer and his wife work with a police detective to uncover the truth behind their son's disappearance following his return from a tour of duty in Iraq.

9.0

The Battle

Mar 27, 2025

21 sequence shots depict moments in a defining night of the Battle of Rua Maria Antônia, in October 1968, from the point of view of the students and professors of the Left-wing Student Movement, in the Philosophy Faculty building of USP.

6.9

Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams

Mar 1, 2006

A woman and her daughter struggle to make their way through the aftermath of the Balkan war.

7.4

The Right Stuff

Oct 20, 1983

As the Space Race ensues, seven pilots set off on a path to become the first American astronauts to enter space. However, the road to making history brings forth momentous challenges.

6.9

That Thing You Do!

Oct 4, 1996

A Pennsylvania band scores a hit in 1964 and rides the star-making machinery as long as it can, with lots of help from its manager.

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat Trailers