Maïmouna Doucouré is following up 2020’s “Cuties,” her Paris-set portrait of a pre-teen Senegalese immigrant who joins a dance clique, with the story of a trailblazing dancer, singer, actor, and civil rights activist. Variety experiences that the French filmmaker will write and direct a Josephine Baker biopic being developed by StudioCanal.
An American-born French performer who was born in 1906 and died in 1975, Baker famously refused to carry out for segregated audiences within the United States. “She worked as a secret agent for the French Resistance during WWII, then supported Martin Luther King’s civil rights movement, speaking at his side during his 1963 March on Washington,” the supply particulars. The “J’ai deux amours” singer made historical past as the primary Black girl to star in a function movie with 1927 silent movie “La Sirène des Tropiques.”
Doucouré’s movie has the approval of Baker’s sons, Jean-Claude Bouillon Baker and Brian Bouillon Baker, and “the Rainbow Tribe, which is what she dubbed her adopted children,” the supply particulars.
“We are honored to partner with StudioCanal and collaborate with Maïmouna on this feature film about the incredible and humanist achievements of our mother,” mentioned Baker’s sons and the Rainbow Tribe, who described their mom as a “universal artist.” They added, “Yes she could. And she did. Thank you, Mum.”
Doucouré commented, “Josephine Baker is such an inspiration for me and so many people around the world.” She described the undertaking as a “huge honor and a beautiful challenge,” including that she couldn’t “wait to breathe new life into this incredible legend on screen.” She emphasised, “To think that through fiction I can tell her great and profoundly rich story, her beauty, her fights, her wounds, and her humanity.”
“Cuties” made its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival, the place Doucouré took dwelling the Directing Award within the World Cinema Dramatic class. The drama explores the sexualization of women and the social pressures they face.