"A riveting, deeply researched archival mixtape with the breadth of a period epic, the soul of an activist march and the pulse-racing energy of a cloak-and-dagger thriller."—Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

"Plays like both a dense historical text and a lively jazz concert while proving itself to be an invigorating piece of documentary filmmaking."—Murtada Elfadl, Variety

"Critic’s Pick! Rhythmic and propulsive...uses every instrument cinema affords. The result, in a word, is marvelous."—Alissa Wilkinson, The New York Times

A Blue Carpet Dash Film

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 the Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup. Director Johan Grimonprez explores a moment when jazz, colonialism, and espionage collided, constructing a riveting historical rollercoaster that illuminates the political machinations behind the 1961 assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. The result is a revelatory documentary 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. This Sundance award-winner interrogates colonial history to tell an urgent and timely story that resonates more than ever in today’s geopolitical climate.