SAARTJIE BAARTMAN
“SAARTJIE Baartman did not have a voice, and 200 years later she talks through me.”
This was said by Cape Town filmmaker and stage performer Deidre Jantjies, 25, of her ambitious project to bring Baartman, a South African icon and Khoisan slave, to the big screen.
Born in the Eastern Cape in 1789, Baartman was taken to London and exhibited in European freak shows in the early 19th century, for her large buttocks.
Baartman made international headlines this week when UK newspaper The Sun reported that US singer Beyonce Knowles-Carter had plans to direct and star in a film about her life.
While Beyonce has since denied being part of the project, the controversy about a non-South African playing the part has breathed new life into a project which has become Jantjies’s passion.
Jantjies travelled to the Sunny Side of the Doc film marketplace in France last year to pitch her idea.
As a result of the Beyonce controversy, she was suddenly being taken seriously, she said.
“I connect to Saartjie. She came looking for me.”
Jantjies released a three-minute film on December 29, the 200th anniversary of Baartman’s death in Paris, titled How I as a Young Coloured Woman Feel Connected to Saartjie Baartman, with views spiking since The Sun’s article.
The video can be viewed on YouTube and
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