Soundtrack to a Coup D’etat

Movie: Soundtrack to a Coup D’etat

Running Time: 1:30

Nominated for: Documentary 

How I watched: Prime

When it had me: Great Music

When it lost me: Confusing multi media

What systems does it challenge: Colonialism

First of all: This movie highlights my American education in an embarrassing way. I know nothing about Belgian colonialism in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I was glad to learn more about this history, but:

Secondarily: the style of this documentary made it a lot to take in. There is archival footage of both the unrest in the DR Congo and also many musical acts. Words on the screen introduce people, time periods, music artists, historical events, subtitles and references. Each book referenced gets an entire citation, including page numbers. Not to mention subtitles to cover several different languages. It's just a lot of reading and trying to watch footage at the same time. 

It was fascinating to see how integral music and recording artists were to the ongoing fight for freedom in Africa. That really gave this doc its own personality.

I didn't always feel like the people, locations and time periods were adequately introduced so I was confused many times throughout. I also  sort of wanted them to link to the ongoing crisis in DR Congo today but I can't be too mad that that lies outside of the parameters of the doc. It felt like a adequate way to dip my toes into the history of a new group of people but it's only an introduction.