A24 announced on Wednesday that it would be backing the new coming-of-age movie Earth Mama from Olympian Savanah Leaf.
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The film will star Tia Nomore, Erika Alexander (Living Single, Run the World), Doechii, Sharon Duncan Brewster (Sex Education, Dune), Dominic Fike, and Bokeem Woodbine (The Inspection, HALO), with Leaf also writing the script for her directorial debut. The film’s logline describes it as “an intimate coming of age story of a pregnant single mother who embraces her Bay Area community as she determines the fate of her family.”
Prior to stepping into the world of filmmaking, Leaf was a former British volleyball player who competed for Great Britain as an Olympian in the 2012 Summer Olympics. Following that, Leaf would go on to direct a variety of music videos, including the Gary Clark Jr. single “This Land” (which earned a Grammy Award for Best Music Video nomination), as well as Common’s “HER Love.”
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Her latest film, the short documentary The Heart Still Hums, followed the stories of five women as they fought for their children through the cycle of homelessness, drug addiction, and neglect from their parents. The film went on to win Best Documentary Short at the Palm Springs International ShortFest, BlackStar Film Festival, and Nashville Film Festival.
