There are some lucky people in this life that wield the power to do anything that they put their mind to. Savanah Leaf is one of them. From representing Great Britain in the 2012 Olympics for volleyball and finishing a degree in Psychology to gaining her newest title as BAFTA nominated writer and director, she has proved that one trick pony she is not.

“I woke up at like 5 am and I don’t know why. I was just so excited for the day, it’s silly” she says, coffee cup in hand as we get as well acquainted as two people can via Zoom. You wouldn’t think Leaf had been up since the crack of dawn with the contagiously giddy energy that is flowing from her. Full to the brim with caffeine and stories to share, the feeling is that we are just old friends catching up.

The same transparency I find on the other side of our video call on that wet and gloomy February afternoon translates on screen in her debut feature film Earth Mama, which graced the silver screen in the UK this past December. The story follows Gia (Tia Nomore), a young pregnant mother from San Francisco’s Bay Area who is confronting the system that is responsible for keeping her two children from her in foster care. As she battles against the cycle of systemic contributors that are forcing her family apart, she must battle difficult conversations and self reflection as she tries to do the best she can in a society that is unabashedly against her.

“It’s about love, and loss as well grief and longing”, Leaf says when describing why she included Bettye Swann’s sweetly nostalgic “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye” as an important song in the movie. But for such an emotionally-drenched production, this is also a perfectly succinct way to describe what’s at the core of her story.

Earth Mama is full of heart. Charged with raw emotions that come from a tangible place for Leaf, as the initial concept for this script was sparked from her younger sister’s adoption when she was sixteen. “I think it started from a place that was quite personal and kind of the initial seed of an idea came from me thinking about my relationship to my sister and her birth mother, but also thinking about my own mother and what she did to raise me on her own”, Leaf tells me.

Despite there being nods to sports sprinkled throughout the film, with Gia lamenting on her love of basketball — which happened to be Leaf’s first love too — she wants it to be clear that this is not a purely autobiographical story. This bud of personal inspiration blossomed into a cohesive collective voice throughout the process of making the film, from the emotional led research that added layers of depth and candour to the stories featured, to asking her cast to input throughout filming. “I did this documentary [The Heart Still Hums (2020)], which was emotional research and I met so many people that contributed their stories to the film”, says Leaf.

Whilst putting out a piece of art that sits so close to home for many in society, it is impressive that she did not cower at the thought of confronting such a complex topic for her breakout film. “[…] That kinda gave me a lot of comfort in creating my first film because it didn’t just feel like my own story, it felt like our shared story and that was liberating and also empowering for me because I didn’t feel alone on that journey at all”.

This collaborative approach was essential to working with the film’s lead, Tia Nomore, who shines as she delivers emotional punch after punch in her breakout role as Gia. Performance is in her blood, as she gracefully transitioned from giving her all on stage as a musician to stepping in front of the camera. Yet, she also brought her own experience of being a mother to the project. “She was a new mom, so she knew what it was physically like to give birth, I myself am not a mom so she was teaching me a lot about the physicality about motherhood” Leaf praises Nomore. “She was also training to become a Doula, so she’s really invested in Black motherhood, specifically in the Bay Area so she has these like, connections to the place that we filmed […] you’re right there’s like nobody else who could do Gia like how Tia did Gia”, she laughs at the accidental tongue twister.

But Earth Mama wasn’t only Nomore’s first acting gig. In fact, a handful of talents that collaborated in the film were newcomers — and Leaf took this and ran with it. “From an acting perspective, I wanted people to feel like they weren’t being watched […] and so no one ever looked at the monitor and no one really knew what we were filming,” she shared. She recalls primarily taking these layers of experience into consideration when choosing framing for scenes, as we learn a lot of the characters through half cracked doors and dirtied car windows. “I think for me some of it was stylistic but it was mainly for the actors, it was making an environment that could be as close to realism as we could make it”.

Whilst she may not be a mother herself, Earth Mama is clearly Leaf’s baby. It was in Screen 1 of Dalston’s Rio Cinema where I was first acquainted with this devastatingly visceral and heartbreakingly realistic story of motherhood. I walked into the theatre alone that evening, and left with a sense of community as everyone in the room experienced the thrall of Gia’s story together. The person behind me was audibly grieving. In my peripheral, someone held their hand to their chest for the majority of the film, as if it could soothe an ache they held there. There are many weighty topics weaved into the story that hit different notes with each viewer.

“Gia has to make a really tough decision and my biggest question for myself was like, will an audience ever feel with or feel for this woman that makes very difficult decisions? Who we oftentimes in our society try to demonise and tell everyone in the world that she’s a bad mom” she says, her passion for the topic cutting through the heavy conversation. “I wanted us to look at that person, as audience members and see if we can empathise with or for or beside her […] I like that idea of challenging the audience to think about their judgement, their perspectives of somebody that they entered the film with and how that may have or might not have changed throughout the film and why”.

Naturally after such a powerful debut, I can help but wonder what’s next on the cards for her. And it’s easy to say Leaf is ready to ask the right questions. “I feel like I’ve lived so many different journeys and it’s funny, like everytime I come on to an interview or something people are asking me like how did you come from sports to film but I still get hung up on that question because it feels like I don’t know, like life has this way of giving you these chapters and things change and I’m really excited to write about these different chapters that have impacted who I am today”. Admission for one please…

EARTH MAMA is available to rent and own on digital platforms now.