Writer / Director Savanah Leaf and star Tia Nomore discuss their new film, Earth Mama, the importance of found family, media representation, and the challenges of recreating an Oakland sideshow.

More about Earth Mama

With two children in foster care, Gia, a pregnant single mother pitted against the system, fights to reclaim her family. In her close-knit Bay Area community, she works to make a life for herself and her kids, in this singular debut feature from filmmaker Savanah Leaf. A glowing breakout at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

Starring Tia Nomore, Erika Alexander, Doechii, and Dominic Fike.

More about Savanah Leaf

Savanah Leaf is an Olympian and award-winning filmmaker, whose work weaves magical realism with poignant social commentary. Her latest film The Heart Still Hums (2020) is a short documentary following the stories of five women as they fight for their children through the cycle of homelessness, drug addiction and neglect from their own parents. The film won Best Documentary Short at the Palm Springs International ShortFest, BlackStar Film Festival and Nashville Film Festival and was released with Fox Searchlight Shorts. Her music video ‘This Land’ for Gary Clark Jr. was nominated for Best Music Video at the 2020 Grammys. Other recent films include: ‘What’s Going On’, a film made for Marvin Gaye’s 1971 hit song, commissioned by Universal Music’s ‘Never Made’ series, ‘Dream’, a film set to Nikki Giovanni’s poem and Flying Lotus’ music, commissioned by the 2020 Biden/Harris campaign; ‘We Matter Too’, a Webby and Shots award-winning animated visualization of phone calls she conducted with incarcerated people during the COVID-19 Pandemic, commissioned by rapper Common, the ARC and ACLU.

More about Tia Nomore

Coming up in cypher circles and freestyle battle arenas, Tia Nomore forced her entry into hip-hop’s boys club. The 28-year-old’s claim as Oakland rap’s little sister started as a teenager when she would jump into her older brother’s rap circles and ditch class to record G-funk- inspired hyphy music. Now a fully realized artist and experienced Oakland emcee with three records under her belt — 2019’s Level, 2018’s Gooney Tunes (alongside Bruh from Last Night and MVCK) and 2016 Halloween— Tia’s fiery wits, lyrical dismantling and command for respect, continue to bring her to new bold artistic territory. The past two years have seen her sharing stages with Princess Nokia and Smino, and releasing singles “DRIP” and “Skirmish,” two addictive collaborations with fellow Town girl and rapper Stoni.

Earth Mama is in theaters now.

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