Rémi Grellety

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat

Jazz and decolonization are intertwined in a powerful narrative that recounts one of the tensest episodes of the Cold War. In 1960, the UN became the stage for a political earthquake as the struggle for independence in the Congo put the world on high alert. The newly independent nation faced its first coup d'état, orchestrated by Western forces and Belgium, which were reluctant to relinquish control over their resource-rich former colony. The US tried to divert attention by sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to the African continent. In 1961, Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba was brutally assassinated, silencing a key voice in the fight against colonialism; his death was facilitated by Belgian and CIA operatives. Musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach took action, denouncing imperialism and structural racism. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev intensified his criticism of the US, highlighting the racial barriers that characterized American society.

Silver Dollar Road

The story of the Reels family who are valiantly attempting to protect the land their family bought one generation after slavery. This documentary, based on the 2019 ProPublica article, highlights the covert ways the legal system has been exploited to keep Black land ownership fragile and the racial wealth gap growing.

Amexica: Life in the Borderlands

A road trip, over ten years, across the so-called Amexican border, a mythical boundary, both physical and cultural, that separates the United States of America from the United Mexican States; a journey in search of the multiple stories of those who inhabit it or are passing through: an audacious expedition that aims to paint a colorful fresco where politics, violence, visual poetry and frustrated ambitions cruelly coexist.

The Young Karl Marx

26 year-old Karl Marx embarks with his wife, Jenny, on the road to exile. In 1844 in Paris, he meets Friedrich Engels, an industrialist’s son, who has been investigating the sordid birth of the British working class. Engels, the dandy, provides the last piece of the puzzle to the young Karl Marx’s new vision of the world. Together, between censorship and the police’s repression, riots and political upheavals, they will lead the labor movement during its development into a modern era.

I Am Not Your Negro

Working from the text of James Baldwin’s unfinished final novel, director Raoul Peck creates a meditation on what it means to be Black in the United States.

Murder in Pacot

In the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, a middle-aged Port-au-Prince couple come face to face with the stark contradictions of Haitian society when they are forced to rent out their villa to a foreign aid worker and his enterprising local girlfriend.

Russian Utopia

Russia 2012, year of Putin’s re-election. For the first time in 15 years, the population is rising up for political change, starting with the 20-somethings who make up the National Bolshevik Party. Their guru: Eduard Limonov –punk poet turned radical leader. Zhenia, Marat, Anya, Shuka and Tvorog come from the provinces of a country destroyed by authoritarianism and brutal capitalism. With no true political platform, beliefs that flirt with extremism and revolution as their sole religion, they look up to Stalin and Robespierre, Gandhi and the Che. Galvanised by the stories of their patriotic idols, they have chosen to live like revolutionary heroes.

Fatal Assistance

Haitian born filmmaker Raoul Peck takes us on a 2-year journey inside the challenging, contradictory and colossal rebuilding efforts in post-earthquake Haiti.

Moloch Tropical

In a fortress on a hill in Haiti a democratically elected president prepares himself for a state ceremony. On the day of the festivities the president finds his country in turmoil. The whole nation is in the grips of a riot that has broken out overnight. But nothing should stop the president’s ceremony.