From writer and director Savanah Leaf, Earth Mama follows the intimate coming of age story of Gia, a pregnant single mother residing in a close-knit Bay Area community as she goes headfirst in the fight of her life to reclaim her two children currently in foster care, while contemplating the difficult decision to give her unborn child up for adoption.
In addition to being Leaf’s directorial feature debut, the A24 film welcomes the acting debuts of newcomers Tia Nomore and Keta Price, and singer-songwriter Doechii. Earth Mama also stars fan-favorite Erika Alexander (Living Single), veteran actor Bokeem Woodbine (Queen & Slim), the incomparable Sharon Duncan-Brewster (Dune), and Euphoria star Dominic Fike.
Leaf, an Olympic volleyball player who competed in 2012, started her filmmaking career with the documentary short about the open adoption and foster care systems called The Heart Still Hums. The documentary was a precursor to the feature exploring the same subjects, based closely on a real-life experience of Leaf’s.
“I actually wrote a draft of the feature script first,” Leaf said in an interview with Film Independent. “It was basically about me meeting my sister’s birth mother and putting myself in her shoes, envisioning myself as her because we were so similar in age.”
Leaf continued, “There was something exciting about imagining her and her life and meeting her really changed my life from then on. You know, [her daughter] was my first sibling. I was 16 years older than [my sister] so I was kind of like her second mom. So that was the first version of the script.”
The award-winning film premiered in January 2023 at the Sundance Film Festival, and would later win the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the San Francisco International Film Festival and the John Schlesinger Award for Best Director at the Provincetown International Film Festival.
Earth Mama will have a limited release, appearing in select theaters on Friday, July 7, including the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, Landmark Nuart in Los Angeles, and Angelika Film Center & Cafe in New York. The movie will release nationwide on July 28, according to a post on the film’s Instagram page.
Watch The Official Trailer For ‘Earth Mama’ Below:
