KINO LORBER ACQUIRES U.S. RIGHTS TO JOHAN GRIMONPREZ’S VIBRANT JAZZ-INFUSED DOCUMENTARY SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT
Kino Lorber will partner with Kanopy for the release of the Sundance prizewinner, which features archival footage and performances by iconic jazz musicians Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Nina Simone, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Abbey Lincoln, Max Roach, and more
“A bravura cinematic essay that intertwines jazz, history, and the taste of a spy thriller…what Grimonprez creates here is a mind-blowingly rich tapestry of research, music,
and the jazziest history lesson imaginable.”
– Tomris Laffly, Harper’s Bazaar
“A remarkable film – exhaustive, informative and rigorously researched,
but also crackling with energy, ideas and formal daring.”
– Wendy Ide, Screen International
“A stunning screed against colonial racism and state-sanctioned violence that reaches far beyond the years it directly covers.”
– Greg Nussen, Slant Magazine
Cannes, FRANCE – May 21, 2024 – Kino Lorber has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Johan Grimonprez’s galvanizing documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, partnering with Kanopy, the premiere public library and university streaming platform for films that matter. A vibrant and richly detailed essay film that intertwines jazz and politics to re-examine the 1961 assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat unravels colonial power dynamics in Africa to a soundtrack of American jazz greats, including Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone, and Duke Ellington. Kino Lorber will release the film theatrically in fall 2024, followed by a home video, educational, and digital release on all major platforms.
Written and directed by Johan Grimonprez and produced by Rémi Grellety (I Am Not Your Negro) and Daan Milius, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat made its world premiere in competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it was awarded the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation. Following Sundance, the film has continued to screen on the international festival circuit, including CPH:DOX and Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, where it received the Audience Award. Director Johan Grimonprez was also awarded the Persistence of Vision Award at the 2024 San Francisco International Film Festival.
The acquisition of Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat marks Kino Lorber’s second collaboration with director Johan Grimonprez following the 2010 release of his ingenious hybrid film Double Take, which interweaves Hitchcock, the Cold War, and the rise of television.
United 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.
The deal for Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat was negotiated at the Cannes Marché du Film by Kino Lorber Senior Vice President Wendy Lidell and Matt Burke of Submarine Entertainment. World sales company Mediawan Rights is representing international sales for the film at Cannes, with deals already secured in numerous territories including Australia (Madman), Benelux (Imagine), Brazil (Bela Artes Grupo), Greece (Cinobo), Italy (I Wonder Pictures), Spain (Filmin), Thailand (Documentary Club), and ex-Yugoslavia (Beldocs).
“Johan Grimonprez is a master of making political history feel newly alive and utterly fascinating, and he’s done it again with his latest film Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” said Richard Lorber, Chairman and CEO of Kino Lorber. “A captivating documentary that skewers capitalists and colonizers to thumping jazz beats, it's a historical tour de force and a wildly compelling cinematic experience. We're thrilled to be working with Johan again and can't wait to share Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat with U.S. audiences, who will surely find themselves moved and shaken by the rhythm and rigor of his enthralling new film.”
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat is produced by Onomatopee Films and Warboys Films, in co-production with Zap-O-Matik, Baldr Film, ZKM | Center For Art And Media Karlsruhe, RTBF Télévision Belge & VRT.
About Johan Grimonprez
Johan Grimonprez’s feature films include dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997, in collaboration with novelist Don DeLillo, selected by the Guardian as one of the “30 great works in the history of video art”), DOUBLE TAKE (2009, in collaboration with writer Tom McCarthy) and SHADOW WORLD (2016, in combination with investigative journalist Andrew Feinstein), which premiered at the Tribeca Festival and went on to win the Best Documentary Feature Award at the 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival. Traveling the festival circuit from the Berlinale, Sundance to Tribeca, Grimonprez’s films have garnered several Best Director awards, the 2005 ZKM International Media Award, an Independent Spirit Award, and the 2009 Black Pearl Award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. Grimonprez’s curatorial projects have been exhibited at museums worldwide, including the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; and MoMA. His works are in the collections of Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; and Tate Modern, London.
Grimonprez is represented by the Sean Kelly Gallery (New York) and The Kamel Mennour Galerie (Paris). He is published by Hatje Cantz, Stuttgart.
About Kino Lorber
With a library of over 4,000 titles, Kino Lorber has been a leader in independent art house distribution for over 45 years, releasing 35 films per year theatrically and garnering 12 Academy Award® nominations in the past 20 years, including 2024 Best Documentary Feature nominee Four Daughters. Most recently, the company has expanded its own direct digital platforms through the acquisition of leading international series streamers MHz Choice and Topic and the launch of Kino Film Collection, a subscription service for film lovers showcasing new releases direct from theaters plus curated international, indie, and documentary films and newly restored classics from the Kino Lorber library. Additionally, the company brings hundreds of titles annually to the home entertainment and educational markets through digital and physical media releases.