Josephine Baker was born into poverty in Missouri in 1906. She moved to France where she became a dancer and hailed as the Queen of Paris. She joined the French Resistance and became a civil rights activist. Starring Léonie Simaga, Josephine Baker, and Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting.

This documentary showcases Josephine Baker as the first African American star. It covers her background and her career. I thought it did a brilliant job at telling us her story. As her fame rose and she wasn’t as welcomed in the U.S., the narrator seems to make comments, and I wondered if Ms. Baker really had these thoughts or if the filmmakers assumed she did. This documentary is only an hour long, and it’s hard to put everything about a person into one hour – but the film did a wonderful job at giving us a taste of her life. It did leave out some things about her life that would be interesting to know about, like her movies, but alas you can’t have everything. This film is worth a watch.