Belgian director Johan Grimonprez, whose film “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” won the Cinema Innovation Award at Sundance, spoke about the importance of “symbolic action” during a lecture at the IDFA documentary film festival on Sunday.
Speaking amid the Art Deco splendor of Amsterdam’s Tuscinski cinema, Grimonprez began with an excerpt from his film “The World of the Shadow,” which dealt with the arms trade. First, he showed a clip showing Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi throwing his shoes at George W. Bush during a press conference to protest the American occupation of his country. Then there was an interview in which Al-Zaidi explained what prompted him to do this, and the price he paid (he was waterboarded, electrocuted, and his front teeth were knocked out).
Grimonprez, an IDFA guest star, noted that “images scream at you” in today’s world. He said it was like standing in Times Square. He reasoned about the emergence of the phenomenon of kidnapping as various groups realized that in a world dominated by images, such actions would attract attention to their cases. In a tragic extension of this logic, the kidnappers also discovered that the death of a hostage heightened this interest, especially if that hostage was American.
“Coup soundtrack”
Courtesy of Johan Grimonprez, Ambroise Poimbo, and Robert Liebeck
He said the media and politicians in the West tended to focus on such “terrorist spectacles” in order to “distract attention from what was happening”, such as intervention in Latin America – the invasion of Grenada during Ronald Reagan’s presidency being one example of this. .
Grimonprez, who referred to himself as a “cultural anthropologist,” spoke of the television set as a “box of fear.” In such a world, he said, “reality is trying to catch up with the media.” At the same time, he said, “We have transformed from citizens to consumers.”
He said films such as “Soundtrack to a Coup,” which dealt with the killing of Patrice Lumumba, Congo’s first democratically elected leader, could play a role in holding companies accountable. For example, the film includes references to Apple and Tesla, alluding to the current exploitation of the country by armed groups fighting to extract cobalt, which is found in batteries for smartphones, laptops and electric vehicles.
Johann Grimonprez
Courtesy of Getty
Grimonprez thought about the role of director in such a world. “Where do you enter the sound?” he asked. He said he likes to include “intimate moments” in his films because they are “the pulse of history.”
He warned against defeatism, spoke of the benefits of hope, and repeated the quote attributed to Saint Augustine: “Hope has two beautiful daughters; Their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and the courage to see that they don’t stay the same.