Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat

1961, at the UN Headquarters in New York. Patrice Lumumba, the leader of Congolese independence, has just been assassinated six months after liberating his country. Tensions run high at the United Nations among the new African member states, Western countries, and the USSR. In this Cold War climate, artists Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach gatecrash the Security Council to denounce the UN’s complicity in Lumumba’s overthrow. Meanwhile, the United States sends another musician, Louis Armstrong, to Congo as an “ambassador of love.” Officially, he is there to calm a divided population; unofficially, he is used to divert attention from the first post-colonial African coup d’état, organised with the complicity of the CIA. 

AWARDS: Sundance 2024 Best Documentary, Oscar Nominee 2025