What do you get when you mix colonial politics, the CIA and a slew of incredible jazz icons? A wildly inventive and superbly edited documentary that makes wonderful use of a treasure trove of archives to tell a very knotty, and sometimes incredulous, history of power, music and politics.
It’s the early 1960s. Patrice Lumumba and the Congolese are trying to shake off Belgium's continuing, insidious colonial hold. The great Dizzy Gillespie is yet to rename the White House, the Blues House. And the CIA and US government are about to start capitalising on the growing global influence of Black America's jazz greats – from Louis Armstrong to Nina Simone – to try to surreptitiously control the future of postcolonial Africa.
Winning Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation, Belgian director Johan Grimonprez transforms the weight of history into a kinetically freewheeling thriller with Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat. This dazzlingly memorable experience is true to the free-flowing spirit and speaking-truth-to-power boldness of the very jazz pioneers it represents.
Mon 17 & Tue 18 Feb
Gates open 6pm | Film starts 8pm
Duration 150mins
2-for-1 Tuesdays Get two tickets for $22
Festival Club membership prices available.