Master essayist Grimonprez unravels the colonial, capitalist and racist motives behind the involvement of Belgium and the U.S. in the assassination of Congo's first democratic leader Lumumba. In which jazz was both smokescreen and means of protest. 

Following such acclaimed essays as Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997) and Double Take (2009), this time Johan Grimonprez unravels the decolonization of the Congo. Sharply outlining the international context of Cold War, American civil rights movement and the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries in the UN, he then zooms in on the assassination of Congo's first democratic leader Lumumba in 1961 and the direct involvement of Belgian and American governments, who did not want to lose the Congolese uranium.

This pressure cooker of colonialism, capitalism and racism spices Grimonprez with jazz. 'Jazz ambassador' Louis Armstrong was sent to Congo by the U.S. as a smokescreen for the overthrow of Lumumba's government, while musicians such as Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach entered the UN Security Council in protest against his execution. Meanwhile, Armstrong and others struggle with a painful dilemma: How can they represent a country where racial segregation is alive and well? Music propels the jazzy edited documentary, which won the Special Jury Prize at Sundance, into the present, where Congo still suffers under the neocolonial struggle for resources.