Interspersed throughout Earth Mama are segments where unnamed characters face the camera and talk about their inner lives. In a world of structural inequality, some grew up in broken families while others lived in the foster care system without parents altogether. In one of these scenes, a woman says, “It’s my journey. It’s not no one else’s journey. Nobody is going to walk with these shoes I got on my feet.” This statement about empathy serves as a guide to how to read writer-director Savanah Leaf’s film. While there is sometimes an expectation to be able to relate to characters and fully understand their motivations, Leaf simply asks us for solidarity by listening to their stories and contemplating their ambiguities.
We later learn that the woman is speaking in a group therapy session for mothers who are trying to get their children back from the state. It’s one of the court-ordered courses that Gia (Tia Nomore) must take to demonstrate to her caseworkers that she is fit to parent her two young kids. But because she refuses to share in class, we don’t learn much more about Gia’s backstory. What we do become familiar with is her current situation of working a part-time job at a mall photo studio to pay child support and struggling to preserve her relationship with her daughter and son while being limited to supervised visits once a week. This all occurs while she is pregnant and about to give birth to a third child.
These elements may make the film feel like a grim Sundance drama, but Leaf imbues Gia’s story with resistance and hope. One way Earth Mama achieves this is through Jody Lee Lipes’ cinematography, which captures the characters in intimate profile shots as they discuss subjects like religion and nature. The nighttime scenes are also striking, whether it’s a casual conversation in a car or a tense tracking shot of Gia coming face-to-face with a friend and recent adversary at a social event. The actors seem to almost glow in these sequences, allowing Lipes to make the people of the Bay Area beautiful without being misleading about the character’s real circumstances.
Gia’s predicament leads her to weigh up the possibility of adoption, but understandably, she’s untrusting of the system. Notably, there are other Black women in Gia’s life, including her best friend, Trina (Doechii), who is also pregnant and talks about future life plans with her. There is also Mel (Keta Price), who helps Gia assemble a crib and takes her to the hospital when she gives birth. Miss Carmen (Erika Alexander), one of Gia’s instructors, offers her guidance and a welcome bit of reason as she navigates the legal process of adoption. These women all show the support for each other that is necessary for survival. They are not only acts of kindness but a form of defiance against a system that refuses to acknowledge them.
Despite this, we see Gia pushed to a point of desperation, perhaps best exemplified when she steals diapers from a mother for her soon-to-be-born child. Leaf’s social commentary is understated, subtly showing us how our institutions are failing mothers, especially those who are young and Black. But Gia also finds solace in nature, watching wildlife TV programs, spending time by the beach and visualizing herself becoming one with the earth. Her connection to the natural world grants her a safe place to retreat when stressors begin to overwhelm her. Like the trees of the Bay Area forests, she draws on the support of others like her for strength. And by speaking to the idea of solidarity, Leaf asks us to confront how we can better help those targeted by a continuous cycle of inequality.
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