Rating: R | Runtime: 101 minutes
Release Date: July 7th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: A24
Director(s): Savanah Leaf
Writer(s): Savanah Leaf

What more do you need to see?

This isn’t Gia’s (Tia Nomore) first pregnancy. Too often we see this type of story centering on a young first-time mother who doesn’t know what to expect as the system fails her. The result is always harrowing, generally hopeful, and usually marked by its agenda—whichever way it falls for the filmmaker. So, having her lead character fully conscious of what’s coming proves a crucial piece to the objective lens writer/director Savanah Leaf is using on her debut feature Earth Mama. It’s not therefore about success or failure. It’s merely the reality that most of these scenarios fall somewhere in between.

We’re talking about circumstances that any mother struggles to overcome let alone a Black, twenty-four-year-old, single mother of two who only gets to visit her son and daughter for one hour a week due to them currently being in the foster system. The courts tell Gia to go through the rigorous program necessary to prove she’s fit to be a mother, but she needs to work to pay for the classes within. And without a support system (her drug dealing sister supplies a roof over her head, but not a lifestyle any judge would deem child-friendly) or the kids’ fathers in the picture, she’s caught in a never-ending cycle of disappointment.

What then are Gia’s choices? Risk everything by rolling the dice only to end up losing the baby she’s about to have along with the two she barely sees? Go against every bone in her body to put the baby up for adoption so she can focus on Trey and Shaynah? Buckle under the pressure of society, her best friend’s religious zealotry, and the surreal umbilical cord dreams she cannot shake by going back to the drugs that helped put her in this situation? Between her case worker toeing the bureaucratic line and her job at a department store photo studio throwing every form of “family” she doesn’t have in her face, trust and hope are non-existent.

Enter Miss Carmen (Erika Alexander)—a social worker who runs Gia’s classes with the empathy and understanding to not simply use hollow words. Enter Mel (Keta Price)—a potential friend who hangs out in front of Gia’s sister’s place. Are they genuine in their desire to help? Are their worries conditional? It’s tough to really know, especially as someone who’s done this twice and been let down by anyone and everyone who she thought she could rely on. How real is the family (Sharon Duncan-Brewster and Bokeem Woodbine) who wants to adopt the baby? It will take a leap of faith.

Faith and a wealth of unfortunate truths once the stress and uncertainty inevitably push Gia into corner after corner with dwindling options. You really feel for her because you know she loves her kids and would do anything for them in a perfect world. It’s a testament to Nomore’s performance that this fact shines through the temper, frustration, and defeat that often drives Gia’s decisions. At the end of the day, she’s fighting. But when you follow the rules and still get nowhere, staying positive becomes impossible. And one slip means going back to the beginning. Sometimes the toughest act amidst such futility becomes recognizing when to stop.

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(L-R) Doechii & Tia Nomore in EARTH MAMA; photo by Gabriel Saravia, courtesy of A24.