‘Earth Mama’: Why Oakland-set movie comes from deeply personal space
The voice off camera poses an uncomfortably blunt question to a woman seated in a chair near the front of a sterile, functional room.
“Why should we care that you make it?”
That remark opens “Earth Mama,” and then threads its way through every delicate, insightful scene in the feature film debut from director and former Oakland resident Savanah Leaf.
Set and shot in Oakland, as well as on Treasure Island and Vallejo, “Earth Mama” proceeds to shows audiences why we should indeed care about what happens to its protagonist, a single, pregnant Black mom with two kids already in foster care.
Gia, played by rising-star Oakland rapper Tia Nomore, is a quietly intense, interior person doing as much as she can to get her kids back. Each day presents a challenge, though, as she tries to stay clean, runs to court-mandated appointments and works at a mall job snapping photos of happy families.
The opening line sprung from an unscripted source; they are words spoken by a single mother named Tiffany who appeared in a 2020 documentary made by Leaf and actor Taylor Russell titled “The Heart Still Hums.” The widely praised 29-minute film similarly focuses on the hardships of a five Sacramento-area single moms as they confront the specter of homelessness, addiction and raising children. Two groups offering assistance, Chicks in Crisis and Black Mothers United/HerHealthFirst, are featured in it.
“When I heard it, I knew it was powerful,” Says Leaf, 29, about Tiffany’s remark. The London-born filmmaker, who was a member of Britain’s 2012 Olympic volleyball team, was inspired in part to make both films by the story of her own sister, Corraine, who was in foster care and then adopted by Leaf’s family.
“Thinking about it as a film, so many audiences would not want to watch this movie — about a Black woman going through tough (expletive),” she said. “Like they’re not going to watch it or they don’t feel like they can empathize with this person or whatever it is. … For me, there’s another layer to what she’s saying. It’s not just really specific and grounded in her own life.”
Leaf, who turned to directing music videos after sustaining an injury while playing volleyball in Puerto Rico, sees the line as an entrance point into Gia’s complicated reality. Having had her two children placed in foster care, she wrestles with a tough decision about whether to offer her unborn child up for adoption. Leaf, a former San Jose State University student prior to transferring to the University of Miami, wanted to ask audiences if they could set aside their judgments and notions about Gia and the decisions and mistakes she’s made.
“Can you challenge yourself to feel with her and can we look beyond?,” Leaf said.
One of the film’s more powerful scenes involves Gia’s meeting with a Mill Valley couple who are considering adopting her unborn child. It’s one of the reasons why Nomore, a 28-year-old Oakland native is winning raves and turning Hollywood heads. Previously known as a rapper in Oakland’s music scene, she has released three albums and several EPs and singles.
Nomore and Leaf bonded immediately.
“I felt a responsibility of taking care of her off the top,” Nomore said.
That mutual respect only blossomed further during filmmaking.
“As we got to know each other, I’m, like, wow, she reminds me of a lot of strong women in my life like my sister and the women that I might see in my community that always told me we’re all responsible for each other,” says Nomore. “Like not only your parents will whup your (expletive) but I will too because we have to be excellent all the time. … It doesn’t always mean prim and proper but just like on pointe. Especially women from the Bay like we don’t have a chance to not be on pivot.”
Nomore bonded with the children in the cast during the shoot, a connection amplified by the fact that she had recently become a mom and was in the process of training to become a doula. It all combined to create a shoot that was, at times, emotional for Nomore.
“So even the baby scenes with the newborns, I was literally lactating,” she recalls. “Like I’m still contracting, brother. It was very hard, and also it was the first time I left my kid for eight hours at a time or more everyday. So in a way, I felt like this is all I have in those kids.”
And when she met the child actor, Alexis Rivas, who portrayed her onscreen daughter, Shaynah, Nomore was a goner.
“I went to my trailer and I cried because she just looks so much like my kid,” she recalls. “And I think I told you,” she said turning to Leaf, “I was like bro, that’s really scandalous you know? So yeah, a lot of it was very much difficult to do.”