Earth Mama is a sobering film and a piece of filmmaking that, as a male, didn’t make me feel uncomfortable but empathetic. I feel more aware of the different experiences and struggles women face. Savanah Leaf’s film is about a young woman from the Bay Area who is in the late stages of her pregnancy and also trying to see her other children that are in the child welfare system. Gia has a choice of keeping her baby or giving it up for adoption. Gia is not the most trusting of others, so she has to face her fears of trusting people while also making a change in her life to see her children. Now I feel that this film shares some tropes with those young men coming of adult age stories; it’s also something men can’t even conceive of dealing with. Gia must contend with all these voices telling her to do and how to go about things, and as you see the story through her eyes, you, like her, also question these people’s real intentions, from her best friends to people who work in the system and others in the neighborhood.
Tia Nomore plays Gia and does so with such believability that, for a large portion of the film, it can feel almost like a documentary just based on her performance alone. Her Gia is very stoic, but it’s a learned way of moving through the world. It’s one she’s cultivated now to be seen by others as being responsible, a young person that is getting it together. There are times when you see cracks of the actual young person there. The want to go be young while also the need to be with her children and the aching hurt she has by not being able to have them with her. There are also these scenes of mental escapes she has through nature – a personal quiet place for her to center herself in her noisy world full of challenging and life-changing decisions. Gia has three major women characters that push and pull her in ways of her thinking.
Doechii plays Gia’s friend Trina who’s also pregnant. Trina is a character that is optimistic about the system and very ratchet but centered on her Christian faith. The two are very close, but you can see that absolute belief in certain things starts to fray their friendship, which I feel Doechii plays very well. She impresses me with her ability as, for the most part, I’ve only seen her in her music videos for her song. Nomore is also a music artist, and I feel it brings real honesty to these characters in the film. Erika Alexander plays Miss Carmen, a woman that works in the child welfare system to do classes for the young mothers who have to go to help them get their children back. She also helps young mothers find families to adopt their children if they want to consider that. Now in this film, she very much slides into a mother-like role for Gia as she can see a need for that in Gia’s body language. Alexander is great, and I haven’t seen her not be great in a role. I feel she is a welcome presence for people looking for someone they might know on screen. Keta Price, who plays Mel, a character that becomes very important to Gia, starts out with levity and then one that can give clarity and an ear to Gia that no one else in the story does. Price is able to portray that well, and I hope they get to be in more roles in the future.
While I think the film is very good, its hard subject matter is very somber, and it’s something that should be explored. It will not make you feel good after watching. I think some of the very few touches of magical realism don’t work as much as it hoped it does, as it starts to confuse things a bit. Those things are very small overall than the main crux of the film, though. This is a film that I do think people should see since it explores a story that hasn’t been seen on the cinematic screen at all.
Score: B
