Written by: Savanah Leaf
Starring: Tia Nomore, Erika Alexander, Doechii, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Keta Price
Rating: [3.5/5]
People hold many opinions about the lives mothers should live in giving their children a strong upbringing. These opinions, while well-intentioned, mean nothing without providing the necessary support to these mothers trying to figure it out. Earth Mama presents a singular and heartbreaking look of a birth mother providing the best effort she can, and how even then it may prove not to be enough.
With two kids in foster care, Gia (Tia Nomore) is pregnant with her third child. Meeting regularly with her social worker but still finding the steps to reunification difficult, the young mother tries to rely on her community support to find the proper equilibrium in her life.
Even with the attempts to create hope, Earth Mama maintains a sense of hopelessness in the tale it tells of Gia. She sits behind the 8-ball in several of the categories in which many would describe as successful in this nation, and sits at the ire of the stereotypes aimed at her racial identity. Battling with drug use in the past that caused the loss of her children to the foster care system, she tries to do everything asked of her by getting a job that will provide some regular hours, but not much pay. She meets all the necessary visitations as called upon but even then nothing quite feels like enough for her to get to the place where she will have everything in place to not only get her kids back, but also live a prosperous life.
Earth Mama delivers this struggle in such a raw manner that contains plenty of sympathy for the plight of this mother. Usually, when one hears of a mother who loses her children because of drug abuse, the stigma placed upon them can build an insurmountable hill that may feel impossible to overcome. They not only have to prove they can operate as functional members of society, but also be seen as a good mother. Through all the stigma and perception that she must fight against, Gia remains someone whose plight we may not understand but at least can feel for in this journey and the difficult decisions she has to make.
Going through this tumultuous time in her life, Gia must make things right for herself, but also with the ramifications of what this means in the Black community. A conversation with her friend solidifies the feeling of what it means to take Black children away from their mothers and put them in the system. Gia battles with this particular ramification when the suggestion of letting her kids, the baby in her belly, in particular, to be made available for adoption by families who have the means to provide a more stable life for the child. A decision that wraps a mother’s guilt alone but adding in what others in her own community would think of her only makes this much worse for her.
This deft touch utilized in this film by Savanah Leaf deserves so much praise in the way she weaves through both the wishful hope and the dreaded reality of this circumstance. She tries to bring in some magical realism that more so plays into the title of the film, that does not necessarily work, but everything transpiring with Gia feels incredibly raw and real. Leaf puts us right in this circumstance with this trying mother and we sit right at her level to not view her as another statistic, but a human being who feels this system does not do what it should to lift her out of her circumstance. This hopelessness continues to build and never quite relents until we meet the moment where Gia needs to make the ultimate decision this film builds to and the way it hits you in the gut emotionally feels beautifully earned and resonant, displaying the wonderful talent of this young director.
Beautifully poignant and equally heartbreaking, Earth Mama holds nothing back in displaying the pain of a mother going through this difficult circumstance. Not only do we receive a wonderful directing job here by Savanah Leaf but Tia Nomore also does a splendid job in bringing Gia to life as someone who may not always do the right thing but never loses the love she has for her children. A deeply human character and one worth following throughout this film. Definitely a film that may have audience members reaching for the tissue box, but every beat feels earned and part of what it looks like to be a mother with this particular circumstance before her.
Films with Josh 
