Tierra madre

Life for most of us is not a scripted movie filled with amazing heroics or world-ending disasters. It consists of good moments that we take in and frustrating hurdles that we try to overcome. Neither a fairy tale nor a nightmare, it's just life. If we're lucky and strong enough we can face the obstacles and deal with them-and perhaps even achieve some happiness. The feature film Tierra Madre encapsulates this perfectly.

Tierra Madre is the story of Aidee, a woman in Mexico who has been around the block. Aidee works as an exotic dancer, raises two children and in a relationship with a woman who got herself knocked up. Aidee takes everything in stride and does want she can to provide for her family, keep a decent roof over their head and attend to her pregnant lover. During this window into her life, we observe her making some progress on her goals but also suffer setbacks both financially and emotionally. Despite that she avoids wallowing in self-pity and does her best to carry on. She keeps moving forward. You come away respecting her for it.

Make no mistake she is no saint or martyr and the film makes no attempt to paint her as one. She is a working class woman with a pragmatic attitude doing what she needs to do to survive and trying not to let life's mishaps pull her down. She wants things for her family and herself but her outlook is tempered by an awareness that sometimes life just simply ain't fair. Aidee, at her core, is accessible to people. That is what perhaps make her all that more admirable and make you wish for her to succeed.

Tierra Madre is a first hand account of a hard working woman in Tijuana determined to provide a better future for her daughter with her female partner. One day, her girlfriend shares her desire to have a child of her own, and, artificial insemination not being legally permitted, convinces Aidee to go on the hunt for a male to conceive a child.

This feminist feature film champions same-sex relationship, the strength, the independence, and the solidarity that exits among women of all ages. It was shot in ten days with a budget of $2,000, a one-man crew, and a cast of non-professional-actors.

Award winner: Morelia Film Festival, Out in the Desert Film Festival, Chicago Reeling Film Festival, Barcelona Film Festival, Cinesul Film Festival, Williamsburg Film Festival, New Jersey Film Festival, Honolulu Film Festival, and Mexico International Film Festival.