Earth Mama
O Mother of the world, have mercy on us, and yourself first
dir: Savanah Leaf
2023
We have been living in an era, for the longest time, where we are told that people need to take responsibility for their actions, that their circumstances are the product of their choices, and that if their circumstances are difficult, well, it’s only because of the bad choices that they made along the way.
IF they struggle and work hard, eventually ‘good’ things will come their way. If something “good” happens to them, that good favour still has to flow from somewhere else, it’s still because of something external to them (the grace of God, the benefits of the welfare safety net system). If something bad happens, well, it’s entirely their own fault.
The ‘logic’ of all this bootstrap nonsense only seems to apply to poor people, though. Poor people are defined as people who don’t have enough money to be shielded from the implications of their choices, right or wrong.
Wealthy people worked hard for what they have, however they got it.
Of course.
Poor people don’t work hard enough and keep making bad choices.
Of course.
Earth Mama is about a woman who can’t get anywhere, can’t get through the difficult circumstances of her life, and her kid’s lives, no matter how hard she tries, because she’s not meant to. She is young, with two kids that have been taken away from her by Child Protective Services already, but she’s also heavily pregnant. The kids were probably taken away because of her previous drug use, which we only know because she keeps being drug tested. There’s an array of requirements she has to adhere to in order to get to spend an hour of supervised time with her kids, per week. And she has to pay child support for the kids even when they have been taken away from her and put in the foster system.
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