Baker grew up in Missouri, a Union border state that felt more like the Old South, around the time Woodrow Wilson segregated the Federal government. She broke into show business in the storied Cotton Club, clawing her way from a back stage gig to a featured spot in the chorus. However, it was Paris, where Baker became a star. Yet, she was constantly frustrated in her attempts to expand her French popularity with American audiences.
Baker passed away in 1975 and achieved her
career peaks in the 1920s and 1930s, so none of her contemporaries are really
around anymore. As a result, there is a conspicuous but unavoidable lack of
personal voices in Awakening. Instead, Navaro relies on a handful of
talking head academics, who provide competent commentary, but nobody really
gives a sense of Baker, beyond the legend.
Of course, that is really what Navaro’s hour-long
documentary is most concerned with. Even more than the Parisian night club
icon, Awakening examines Baker as a symbol of French resistance and
Civil Rights activism. To a large extent, Awakening is more about how
others perceived Baker than her personal relationships. Arguably, her “Rainbow
Tribe” adoption of twelve children from around the world made her an early
forerunner to Angelina Jolie, but there had to be more drama and complications
involved than Awakening lets on.
