IDFA celebrates critically acclaimed artist and filmmaker Johan Grimonprez

IDFA will be highlighting Johan Grimonprez’s uncompromising approach to challenging narratives and reinterpreting historical events through a critical, contemporary lens.

Grimonprez first gained international acclaim with his 1997 film dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, which examined the history of airplane hijackings and the media’s role in shaping public perception. His most recent award-winning film, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, unravels the decolonization of Congo, using jazz as a smokescreen and means of protest in the examination of the international context behind the 1961 murder of Congo’s prime minister, Patrice Lumumba.

Other films screening will be Double Take (2009), Shadow World (2016), Blue Orchids (2017) and more. With this retrospective, IDFA invites audiences to discover and reflect on Grimonprez’s singular exploration into the development of present-day media, from how world crises are represented to our own relationships to these platforms and technologies.