Gia (West Coast rapper Tia Nomore in an impressive debut) is a young African-American mother in recovery for drug abuse. Her two under-five children are in foster care and she only sees them once a week for a supervised visit. The rest of her time is spent in court-mandated classes and a low-paying job as an assistant for a portrait photographer. Most of his clients are couples or families posing in front of vacation backdrops, depicting a life that is very far from what Gia is experiencing.
To complicate matters, Gia is pregnant with no father in sight. She has a group of girlfriends, many also pregnant and in recovery, and a supportive case worker, and she attends a support group where she learns how others are coping with the kinds of challenges she is facing. But she is still on her own when it comes to making life-changing decisions. After she meets a family interested in adopting her baby through an open adoption, she wavers emotionally from hope to despair.
In one meeting with the case worker, she is told that her children need stability and the authorities have not seen that in her. She asks, “What more do you need to see?” You may find yourself wondering that as well.
First-time director Savanah Leaf does not shy away from showing the real difficulties Gia faces and the mistakes that she makes. We also witness some sweet moments with her children that indicate this is a mother who truly will do what’s best for her children. In giving us this multi-faceted view of this young woman, Leaf invites us to empathize with her and to really care about what happens to her. And we do.