Black Cinema Series: Earth Mama

@ The Black Cinema Series is graciously curated by guest programmer Anpa’o Locke. A devastating and evocative portrait of motherhood refracted through the prisms of race and class, Savanah Leaf’s auspicious debut feature (expanding upon her documentary short, The Heart Still Hums ) is a deeply affecting work of cinematic humanism. Set in the Bay Area, the film follows Gia (portrayed with immense complexity by Oakland rapper Tia Nomore) as she contends with pregnancy and poverty while longing for her children (who have been placed in foster care) and dodging Child Protective Services in the fear that they’ll take her soon-to-be-born baby from her as well. Facing an impossible situation, Gia warms to the idea of giving her baby up for adoption, and connects with a well-meaning, middle-class couple (Sharon Duncan-Brewster and Bokeem Woodbine), who could potentially give the child a better life. But a constellation of factors—especially Gia’s own sense of guilt—lays bare the fact that, for Gia, there is simply no way to win. Lensed in richly textured 16mm by Jody Lee Lipes, Earth Mamais both a heartrending film about a young woman grappling with the most fundamental questions of motherhood amid utterly hostile socioeconomic conditions, and a formally sophisticated work that suggests and conjures rather than facilely connecting the dots for us. Runtime: 97 min Anpa’o Locke is an Afro-Indigenous writer, filmmaker, and curator who is Húŋkpapȟa Lakota and Ahtna Dené (Village of Tazlina), born in the Standing Rock Nation and now residing in Albuquerque, New Mexico.She was a 2023 Native Lab Fellow and a 2022 Full Circle Fellow at the Sundance Institute, where she developed her upcoming short film Kawá, which follows an Afro-Indigenous teen reconnecting with her Native roots. Anpa’o’s work is dedicated to amplifying Indigenous narratives in cinema. In 2023, she co-curated Imagining Indigenous Cinema at the UCLA Film & Television Archive. This groundbreaking series highlighted over 40 films by US-based Indigenous artists in the post-Standing Rock era. She has also worked as a writer for PBS Digital Studios’ Sovereign Innovations and as an Associate Producer for Best Case Studios. Center for ContemporaryArts Add to calendar Google Calendar iCalendar Outlook 365 Outlook Live