Political Films Meet-Up: SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D'ETAT

Political Films Meet-Up: “SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D'ETAT”

Let’s talk about movies! Join movie club member Clay Vaughn for the next film in our Political Films series with Johan Grimonprez's "Soundtrack to a Coup D'etat" (2024), a film about the 1960s Congo Crisis which received critical acclaim and was nominated at the Oscars for Best Documentary Feature.

Here’s how The Portland Movie Club meet-ups work:
Just like a book club, we watch the movie on our own time before we meet.

We'll meet at Lucky Lab on SE Hawthorne at 4pm on the scheduled date.

We'll typically have a sign at our table(s) but at least we'll try to be obvious and identifiable.

Grab some food and drinks to support our generous hosts and spend some time socializing and discussing this movie with us.

A Few Notes about the film:
Johan Grimonprez is a Belgian multimedia artist, curator, and filmmaker. The genesis of the project was Grimonprez's fascination with Nikita Khrushchev's alleged shoe-banging incident at the UN. The film is unconventional in that it consists entirely of archival footage, and relies upon music, newsreels, and other sources to narrate the story. It features excerpts from books by African writers Andrée Blouin and In Koli Jean Bofane, and from the audio memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev.

Viewing Options for the film:
For streaming, the film is available for free on Kanopy (if you have a library card, you can access it). It's also available via rental or subscription on YouTube, Amazon, Apple TV, The Roku Channel, or Fandango at Home. There is also a Bluray of the film available to rent at Movie Madness.

About Political Films:
This series is based on the New Republic article, "The 100 Most Significant Political Films of All Time" ([https://newrepublic.com/article/173376/100-political-films-new-republic-list] published in June 2023 and is a comprehensive list of films that speak to our relationships with government, war, bureaucracy, politics and politicians, crime, propaganda, classism, and more. The list is not intended to be a collection of the 'best' films, but the most significant (although many of them are also very good). Some of these films can be a challenging watch, I'd suggest www.doesthedogdie.com for content warnings.

Tips:
Once again, we do not watch the movie at the meet-up. All members watch the movie on their own time before we meet to discuss it. You don't have to watch the movie to join us, but it'll be more fun if you do.

Some people like to take notes or find books and articles related to the film and its subject matter, feel free to bring those things along if there's something you'd like to share with the group.

At the end of the discussion we'll pass around a ballot where we can vote on a slate of options for the next discussion. Lately we've been alternating documentaries and fiction films. So if you come to a meet-up to discuss a documentary, you'll vote on a ballot of fiction films for next time, and vice versa.

Previous films viewed by “Political Films” Meet-up members for group discussion have included: "The Conformist," "The Fog of War," "The Zone of Interest," "Harlan County USA," "Judas And The Black Messiah," "Medium Cool," "The President’s Analyst," "Marat / Sade," "On The Waterfront," "The Great McGinty," "Seven Days In May," "The Candidate," "The Act of Killing," "The Battle Of Algiers," "All The President’s Men," "How To Blow Up A Pipeline," "Do The Right Thing," "Malcolm X," "A Face In The Crowd," and "Dr. Strangelove."

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