Join us for a screening of Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat in partnership with the African Film Festival and Universal Temple of the Arts. Directed by Johan Grimonprez and released in 2024, the film was the 2025 Oscar® nominee for Best Documentary Feature.When: July 16 | 7:45 PM – 10:30 PMWhere: South Meadow (View Directions and Site Map Here)Admission: FREEDoors open at 7:30 PM, followed by a pre-screening set by celebrated American jazz trombonist Craig Harris. Film screening at 8:15 PMUnited 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. About AFFAfrican Film Festival, Inc. (AFF) is dedicated to advancing a deeper understanding of African culture through the moving image. It offers diverse platforms for the wide distribution of African media through its flagship annual film festival and complementary year-round programming. AFF is committed to increasing the visibility and recognition of African media artists by introducing African film and culture to a broad range of audiences in the United States and abroad, while transcending economic, class, and racial barriers.In 1990, AFF’s…
