Maïmouna Doucouré, who infamously wrote and directed the 2020 film ‘Cuties‘, is set to take on the task of writing a script and directing a biopic of Josephine Baker. Doucouré called the opportunity a ‘huge honor and also a beautiful challenge’ to tell the story of Baker and to depict her importance for the rest of the world to see.
Baker has had two iterations of her depicted on film. The first, ‘The Josephine Baker Story,’ was a dramatized version of her story that was released in 1991, and the other was a 2018 documentary titled ‘Joséphine Baker. Première icône noire.’
Baker was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1906. She played a role in the Civil Rights movement and is a important individual in the development of dancing. Baker always loved dancing. She began touring in a dance trope at 16 years old in Philadelphia and would eventually move on to do many musicals and shows in New York.
In 1925, she moved to France after she dancing in ‘La Revue Nègre.’ Her performances made her one of the most popular dancers at the Folies-Bergère in Paris, France. Baker would move on from dancing in films to join the French army during World War II. After her work in WWII, she would return to the stage until 1956, but would keep dancing to her death.
Baker became the first Black woman to be inducted into the Pantheon in Paris, France’s highest posthumous honor, because of her contributions to the country and to the world.
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