Double Feature: To Catch a Dream and Soundtrack to a Coup d’État
Paid activity | Space is limited, Reservation required
The McCord Stewart Museum and the International Festival of Films on Art invite you to a screening of To Catch a Dream and Soundtrack to a Coup d’État. This double bill is presented as part of the exhibition Africa Fashion.
On the program
To Catch a Dream
By Jim Chuchu, Kenya, 2015 – 13 minutes
Original Swahili version, with English subtitles.
The Nest Collective and Chico Leco’s second collaborative fashion project, featuring the works of eight local designers in a short fashion film starring Kenyan modelling icon Ajuma Nasanyana.
Each character was dressed according to the individual designer’s creative interpretation of the script with the input of the set stylist. Ajuma’s vibrant urban outfits and statement jewelry by day, with made-up looks, clearly contrast with the simple, clean lines and straight cut of her night gown, which are an ode to her nocturnal vulnerability.
To Catch a Dream, a tale of love lost and found, is a darkly whimsical detour into the nebulous imaginary space where fairy tales crash irreversibly into lived reality. It is also an exploration of the role of fantasy in African art, and an audio-visual commentary on the essential place of storytelling in contemporary society to reclaim our stolen pasts.
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
By Johan Grimonprez, Belgium, France, Netherlands, 2024 – 150 minutes
Original version in English, French, Dutch and Russian, with French subtitles
United Nations, 1960: the Global South ignites a political earthquake, jazz musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crash the Security Council, Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe, and the U.S. State Department swings into action, sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup.
Director Johan Grimonprez captures the moment when African politics and American jazz collided in this magnificent essay film, a riveting historical rollercoaster that illuminates the political machinations behind the 1961 assassination of Congo’s leader Patrice Lumumba. Richly illustrated by eyewitness accounts, official government memos, testimonies from mercenaries and CIA operatives, speeches from Lumumba himself, and a veritable canon of jazz icons, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat interrogates colonial history to tell an urgent and timely story of precedent that resonates more than ever in today’s geopolitical climate.
This feature-length film won Best essay prize, as part of the 43rd FIFA edition. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat was also selected for major international festivals and nominated for Oscar for Best Documentary at the 97th Academy Awards, in 2025.
Information
- Ticketed activity, in English and French, presented on Wednesday, January 14, 2026, at 6 p.m.
Space limited, reservation required. - Duration: 163 minutes
- Location: J. Armand Bombardier Theatre at the Museum
Admission
- General Admission: $10
- Students: $5
- “Exclusive Access” Members of the Museum: free
Exhibitions
As of September 25
Africa Fashion
Organized by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, this exhibition—one of the largest ever dedicated to African fashions—invites audiences to experience the creative energy of designers from across the African continent.
From the turn of the 1960s to today, the exhibition features men’s, women’s and gender fluid fashion and accessories, that together bear witness to both the foundational role that textiles, clothing and body adornment have played in African cultures, and how fashion became a powerful force for post-colonial self-expression, drawing international attention for its limitless creativity, just like Africa itself.
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