After opening at SXSW, the feature-length documentary Mama Bears is making its festival rounds this summer and will screen on July 22 at Outfest. While dealing with religious stigma, the first teaser, according to Variety, shows glimpses of women’s journeys to acceptance, whether of their LGBTQ+ children or of their own, Mothers formed a Facebook group to promote love without sacrificing their religious beliefs, and the documentary Mama Bears explores the concept that the two principles are not mutually incompatible and emphasises the need of gaining a different point of view and an understanding of one another.
Opening with stained-glass windows of a church and a woman flipping through scripture over a cup of coffee, the trailer was directed and produced by Emmy Award-winning Daresha Kyi. As a former “Tea Party Republican,” Kimberly Shappley is one of the women Mama Bears chronicles who now advocate for LGBTQ+ community safety and inclusion. As Sara Cunningham, a Midwest parent, explains in the film’s trailer, she is devoted to and proud of her very personal convictions, which led to both her grief at finding her son was homosexual and the creation of the “Free Mom Hugs” campaign at pride parades.
A mother’s support is crucial in the movie Mama Bears, which also features Tammi Terrell Morris, a lady who struggled with her own sexuality because of her religious upbringing. Because of their “fundamentalist, evangelical” Christian upbringings, each of the ladies featured in the video had a difficult time adjusting to the LGBTQ community. By examining how a mother’s life changes as she questions traditional Christian beliefs, Kyi’s film offers a fresh perspective on the modern world’s journey to acceptance. “It was incredibly hard to find another Christian that I could empathise with until I encountered the Mama Bears,” a lady is quoted as saying in the trailer, and she goes on to highlight how the support group led to her activism for the basic human rights of the LGBTQ+ community.
Several ladies who have been rejected from their Christian communities for just acknowledging their children’s existence are featured in the film, as well as those who have benefitted from Free Hugs after their families disowned them due to their homosexuality. One mother’s thoughts on the significance of love and support for her kid who is LGBTQ+:
I can’t do anything else than fight for my baby once I realise how essential it is.” Intimate footage, photos, and interviews with individuals directly impacted by the volatile interplay between politics, religion, and unconditional love are all featured in the film. Kyi’s second feature-length documentary after her Chavela biopic on the life of Costa Rican-Mexican singer Chavela Vargas, a graduate of NYU Film School. Her work on the ACLU-commissioned docuseries Trans In America: Texas Strong earned her two Webby Awards and an Emmy Award in 2018.
Laura Tatham, who previously worked with Kyi on Chavela, is the film’s producer, while Austin-based director of photography Amy Bench is the film’s director of photography. Mama Bears will screen on the 22nd of July at Outfest and on the 28th and 29th of July at Traverse City Film Festival. Visit Kyi’s website to learn more about the film and to see the Variety-exclusive trailer.