Independent Lens
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Mama Bears
Conservative, Christian beliefs have defined their entire lives, but now they’re championing their LGBTQ children. A mama bear's love is ferocious.
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Producer/Director
Daresha Kyi
Daresha Kyi writes, produces, and directs films and TV in Spanish and English. A graduate of NYU Film School, her second feature documentary Mama Bears, about how conservative, Christian mothers are transformed when they decide to accept their LGBTQ children, premiered at SXSW 2022.
Producer
Laura Tatham
Laura Tatham is creative documentary producer currently working on the feature What We Carry, having most recently completed the feature Mama Bears (‘22 SXSW, Independent Lens) and the short Black Beauty (‘22 Inside Out). She was a 2020 Film Independent Documentary Lab fellow and a 2020 + 2022 WIF/Sundance Institute Financing Intensive fellow.
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The Film
Mama Bears explores how the lives of conservative, Christian mothers are utterly transformed when they decide to accept their LGBTQ children. Spread throughout the country but connected through private Facebook groups, they call one another “mama bears” because of the ferocity with which they fight for their children’s rights and those of the entire LGBTQ community. Although they grew up as fundamentalist, evangelical Christians praying for the souls of LGTBQ people, these mama bears are now willing to risk losing friends, family, and faith communities to keep their children safe—even if it challenges their belief systems and rips apart their worlds. Along the way they struggle through grief, denial, anger, and deep depression. Mama Bears takes us inside their journey to becoming LGBTQ allies, following a few of the 8,000 dedicated moms across the United States who have connected at a complicated juncture to create a network of love and conviction.
