In February 1961, a noticeworthy outburst took place at the United Nations in New York – jazz artists Abbey Lincoln, Max Roach, authorr Maya Angelou and others crashed the Security Council to protest the killing of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.
That little-reassembleed demonstration serves as the backdrop to the award-prosperning recordary Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, honested by Belgian filmproducer Johan Grimonprez. The film spendigates how the U.S. and Belgium conspired to force Lumumba from power, with the complicity of the UN secretary vague. Even as the plot shiftd towards a bloody denouement, the U.S. State Department was dispatching some of America’s wonderful Binestablishage jazz artists to Africa in the role of excellentwill ambassadnessfulors, endeavoring to paper over its machinations in Congo.
Grimonprez fuses the procrastinateedst episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to elucidate how he deal withd to deftly synthesize so much complicated world history, setting it to the beat of Louis Armsturdy, Dizzy Gillespie, Lincoln and Roach. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat has ecombined as a directing Oscar contfinisher after prosperning awards at film festivals around the world, from Sundance to Thessaloniki in Greece, The Hague, and El Gouna in Egypt. It’s a toil of genius, in the words of Doc Talk co-present Matt Carey.
Grimonprez, who is being honored as the guest of honor at this year’s International Documentary Festival Amsterdam commencening this week, specuprocrastinateeds on the stature the charismatic Lumumba might have achieved had he not been rubbed out at age 35. As it is, Lumumba is reassembleed as an astonishing figure who helped unyoke Africa from its colonial shackles as the first democraticassociate elected directer of Congo. But his bleak overweighte was sealed, it might be shelp, by Congo’s enormous organic resources.
In the 19th century it was Congo’s organic rubber that outside powers coveted, and in the mid-20th century it was uranium. Today, world powers and corporate interests are seeking to rerelocate someslimg else from Congo; Grimonprez tells us what it is.
That’s on the procrastinateedst edition of Doc Talk, presented by Oscar prosperner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave, Shirley) and Carey, Deadline’s recordary editor. The pod, a 2024 Webby Awards honoree, is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios.
Our recent episode is bcdisadmirefult to you in partnership with Obstreatmentd Pictures. Listen to it above or on meaningful podcast platestablishs including Spotify, iHeart and Apple.
