Icon. Global Superstar. Civil Rights Activist. Spy.
“The Extraordinary Lives of Josephine Baker” tells the story of one of the most magnetic performers of the twentieth century, a Missouri-born entertainer who fled poverty and reinvented herself in 1920s Paris, becoming the first Black woman to achieve global superstardom. Her debut in La Revue Nègre in 1925, followed by her legendary “danse sauvage” at the Folies Bergère in a skirt made of artificial bananas, made her an overnight sensation and the embodiment of the Jazz Age in Europe. She commanded the stage with a blend of comedic genius, sensuality, and athletic precision that captivated audiences from Paris to Buenos Aires, inspiring artists from Picasso to Hemingway, who famously called her “the most sensational woman anyone ever saw.” Beyond the spectacle, Baker insisted on her own dignity at a time when American venues forced her to enter through service doors; she refused to perform for segregated audiences, and stood beside Martin Luther King at the 1963 March on Washington. Believing that racism was learned, she adopted twelve children of different ethnicities and faiths, forming what she called her “Rainbow Tribe,” seeking to show how all people could love and peacefully co-exist without hate.
But what Baker did during World War II led to one of the most remarkable, and little-known second acts in modern history. When France fell to the Nazis, Baker was recruited by French military intelligence, using her celebrity as a near-perfect cover. At a time when borders were closed, she toured neutral countries like Portugal, Spain, and Morocco ostensibly to perform, at great risk smuggling intelligence about German troop movements and Axis activity written in invisible ink on her sheet music and pinned inside her underwear, knowing that no customs officer would dare search a star of her stature. She actively gathered valuable intelligence, hosting Axis diplomats and officers and later entertained Allied troops across North Africa and the Middle East even while gravely ill. France honored her with the Croix de Guerre, the Rosette of the Resistance, and induction into the Légion de Honneur. In 2021, because of her work as a spy and as a heroine of the resistance, she became the first Black woman interred in the Panthéon in Paris, a recognition that her importance was never merely as an entertainer but as a singular figure who used her fame as both a weapon against fascism and a standing rebuke to racism on two continents.
This 90-minute film blends vibrant archive of performances and interviews, selections from her own memoirs, and contemporary interviews with celebrities and scholars, in a fitting tribute to a truly extraordinary woman.
About the creative team:
Yoruba is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose recent works includes the Peabody Award winning “The Rebellious Life of Mrs Rosa Parks”. Other works include the Emmy-nominated “American Reckoning” (PBS Frontline), “How it Feels to be Free” (American Masters). She is the founder of Promise Land Film, which focuses of producing nuanced, compelling documentary films that illuminate issues of race, space and power. 4th Act Factual is a women-led, cross-continental partnership bringing together experience in documentary, journalism and entertainment. A recent project was the Emmy-nominated “The Disappearance of Miss Scott” for American Masters. “Miss Scott” was also the recipient of three New York Festival gold medals, including one gold tower.
4th Act Factual is a women-led, cross-continental partnership bringing together experience in documentary, journalism and entertainment. A recent project was the Emmy-nominated “The Disappearance of Miss Scott” for American Masters. “Miss Scott” was also the recipient of three New York Festival gold medals, including one gold tower.
