N.O.Body 2008

Directed by Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz · 15 min

The film restages a photograph of the ‘bearded lady’ Annie Jones (1865 – 1902). She lived in the USA and was one of the most famous bearded ladies of her time. She toured throughout the USA and all over Europe, first with the Barnum Circus and then later with her own show. The photograph of Annie Jones crosses through two contexts of difference. It travelled from the freak show in the Barnum Circus, where she was presented as a ‘wonder’ or a ‚freak‘ (for a fee), to the medical theater, where she was shown in Hirschfeld’s book as a potential ‘patient.’