A young mother fights to reclaim her family in Director Savanah Leaf’s drama, Earth Mama.

Leaf’s film tells the story of Gia, a pregnant single mother with two children in foster care. Pitted against the system, she works to make a life for them all in their close-knit Bay Area community.

On July 9, after the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles, Leaf discussed the making of Earth Mama during a Q&A moderated by Director Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim). She also spoke about the film in a Q&A moderated by Director Celine Song (Past Lives) following the New York screening on July 18.

During the Los Angeles conversation, Leaf spoke about her vision of the film.

“The film is very grounded in realism, or neo-realism, and I was thinking about how motherhood is so much more than just the obstacles you face and our physical space and world. I was thinking about the lineage of black women and how Gia connects to her offspring, how she connects to the mother that came before her and the trauma that she was potentially wanting to pull away from. Or maybe the beauty within that lineage as well, and the power within that lineage, and black women being kind of the center of our universe. I wanted to show that, but I knew that it couldn’t be in a line of dialogue. So, I tried to show that in something that felt like physiological or emotional kind of imagery. As a filmmaker, I had this dream of putting people in her shoes. Then I realized that’s not the goal. The goal isn’t to make people be in their shoes, it’s to walk beside them.”

Earth Mama is Leaf’s feature directorial debut. She joined the DGA in 2018.