Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
**Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat** (2024, dir. Johan Grimonprez) A Hidden Beach Winter of Culture film night at the Electric Palace, Hastings. This electrifying, Academy Award-nominated documentary digs into the jazz ambassadors the United States sent across the world in the 1960s — Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington — while, behind the music, superpower politics sealed the fate of the newly independent Congo and its leader Patrice Lumumba. Cutting between smoky performances, archive newsreels and declassified memos, it is a thrilling, music-soaked detective story about art, propaganda and empire. Part of the Hidden Beach Winter of Culture film season. Register your interest to hear first when tickets go on sale.
Friday 18 December 2026
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat (2024, dir. Johan Grimonprez) A Hidden Beach Winter of Culture film night at the Electric Palace, Hastings. This electrifying, Academy Award-nominated documentary digs into the jazz ambassadors the United States sent across the world in the 1960s — Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington — while, behind the music, superpower politics sealed the fate of the newly independent Congo and its leader Patrice Lumumba. Cutting between smoky performances, archive newsreels and declassified memos, it is a thrilling, music-soaked detective story about art, propaganda and empire. Part of the Hidden Beach Winter of Culture film season. Register your interest to hear first when tickets go on sale.
More info & tickets: https://hiddenbea.ch/events/soundtrack-to-a-coup-detat