They’ve grown up fundamentalist, active in their evangelical Christian churches, and wouldn’t stand out from the faithful in any way, except one: they are fierce defenders of their LGBTQ+ children. These are the Mama Bears — tough mothers who have chosen their children over their church, fighting for civil rights, and to overcome the hate with which they were raised.
Around the United States, connected through social media, over 30,000 conservative, Christian mothers call themselves “mama bears” as they ferociously fight for the civil rights of their children and the entire LGBTQ+ community. At one level deeply conservative and evangelical, they have chosen to embrace their children’s diversity. In the process, the Mama Bears are willing to risk losing friends, family, and faith communities to keep their children safe — even if it challenges their belief systems and rips their worlds apart. Closely following a pair of Mama Bears — Sara Cunningham and Kimberly Shappley — and a young African American lesbian, Tammi Terrell Morris, director Daresha Kyi crafts a nuanced film that is heartbreaking, hopeful and deeply affirming.
Director Biography
Daresha Kyi is the director of the short documentaries The Thinnest Line (1988), Land Where My Fathers Died (1991) and the documentary Chavela (2017) (co-directed with Catherine Gund), which appeared at the 2017 MSPIFF. Mama Bears (2022) is her most recent documentary.