Arts & Culture

 Soundtrack to a Coup d”Etat
Where: In theatres, (TIFF LIghtbox)
What: Movie, 180 mins.
When: Fri., Jan. 17
Genre: Documentary
Rating: NNNNN (out of 5)
Why you should watch: Inventive filmmaking uses jazz energy to tell tragic story of Western sabotage of emerging African democracies — with jazz as a CIA secret weapon

LIKE A PIECE OF MUSIC itself, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat has the frenetic, compulsive and consuming energy of improvisational jazz. It tells how the CIA used “cultural exchanges” as part of a larger program to destabilize newly independent colonies in the ’60s and open a cultural front in the supposed “cold war” — a war that was very hot in superpower surrogate locations like Vietnam, the Middle East and Africa, including Congo, which is featured in the film.

This doc is history with a groove thanks to its pervasive jazz soundtrack and jazz-like edits as it tells the heartbreaking story of the West’s gang-up on the newly independent Democratic Republic of Congo and its charismatic, nationalist leader, Patrice Lumumba, an African hero and, ultimately, martyr.

With a treasure trove of archival footage as well as audio diaries from some key players, the filmmakers weave a tragic tale of the Western sabotage and active destruction of the emerging post-colonial democracies whose independent-minded leaders were deemed a threat by the U.S., its allies and even the UN. The latter deservedly disgraced itself in the eyes of many non-Western nations, leaving many forever suspicious of the UN and its motives.

The political drama unfolds at the same time as the U.S. and (really, the CIA) is sending Louis Armstrong to Congo on a “cultural exchange.” Armstrong smells a rat as he and his bandmembers grow to question the motives of their trip. Armstrong is not the only African-American musician dispatched by the U.S. government on similar “exchanges”: artists like Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane all express their refusal to paint the U.S. as a paradise or soft pedal segregation and racism in America when they make these musical tours.

Malcolm X looms large throughout Soundtrack, and Coltrane describes hearing the legendary orator speak in Harlem. X’s words, as well as jazz, helped create support and celebration of “new Africa” and underlined the significance of the emergence of new African nations to Black America. Archival shots of celebrations on the streets of New York capture this as well as the crushing despair when the new democracies are betrayed.

Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev emerges as an unlikely “good guy” as he denounces colonialism at the UN, defends Lumumba as the newly elected leader of Congo and is shown goofily hanging out with Fidel Castro at a Harlem hotel when they were both speaking at the UN. We learn that when Castro was chased out of a New York hotel, Malcolm X found him a place to stay in Harlem.

The film is filled with historical gems and coincidental connections of apocryphal figures, all edited with jazz energy. Profile photos and static pics in the film are often filtered to look like Blue Note or Verve album covers. One especially evocative image of the Cuban leader would be perfect for an LP titled Castro Sings the Blues. Among the treasure trove of jazz performances woven into the film, Soundtrack routinely cuts to Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln performing We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, a passionate cry of African solidarity.

Inventive, informative with an irresistible energy and an unlikely cross-mingling of jazz, Cold War intrigue and political assassination, Soundtrack of a Coup d’Etat is propulsive, electrifying filmmaking that packs a punch — and a groove.