By Hanna Rantala
LONDON (Reuters) – Olympian-turned-filmmaker Savanah Leaf wants to challenge audiences’ preconceptions with her feature film debut “Earth Mama”, a study of compassion, Black motherhood and the child welfare system.
Anchored in personal experiences, the movie follows Gia, a young, heavily pregnant single mother who has to make difficult decisions about the future of her unborn baby whilst fighting to regain custody of her two other children who have been placed in foster care.
Leaf’s own mother adopted her sister when the former Team GB volleyball player was 16.
“I came up with the idea because I was thinking about my own sister’s birth mother. I was thinking if people would be able to empathise with someone like her,” said Leaf, 30, who was named best debut director at the British Independent Film Awards last Sunday.
“Earth Mama” marks the acting debut for rapper Tia Nomore, who had recently given birth to her first child and was training to become a doula.
“Gia ended up being kind of a combination of both of our personalities,” said Leaf, who was born in London and moved to California as a child.
“Earth Mama” is an extension of Leaf and actor Taylor Russell’s documentary short “The Heart Still Hums”, which centred around five women with children in care or given up for adoption and served as “emotional research” for the feature.
The film sees the guarded young woman striving to make it on her own and defy societal expectations.
“The role is really based off of how I handle stress and systems and pressures, which is, oftentimes I am kind of this introverted person and I let it build up until the point where I can’t let it build up anymore and then I let it all out,” said Leaf, who incorporated dream-like, nature-inspired scenes to contrast with Gia’s harsh surroundings.
“The film kind of speaks to ancestry and the trauma we inherit, but also the resilience and the strength that we carry with us,” said Leaf.
“Earth Mama” is released in the UK and Ireland on Dec. 8.
(Reporting by Hanna Rantala; Editing by Alison Williams)
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