Her feature directorial debut, "Earth Mama," is already one of the most lauded films of the year, and Leaf tells IndieWire how her unconventional path to filmmaking allowed her to really score.

The movie "Earth Mama" follows a pregnant Black woman as she considers giving her baby up for adoption. NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks director and writer Savanah Leaf about the sacrifices parents make.

Writer-director Savanah Leaf never forgot how her life changed at 16, when she met her future sister’s birth mother, a young woman not much older than herself. “I felt very similar to her in ...