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WHAT IS DIVINE MOTHER?
Divine Mother is a short film that explores pregnancy loss, Black maternal healthcare, and what it means to be a mother through the journey of Aneka and Miguel, a couple on a road trip through the Southwest.
What starts as an outer quest becomes an inner odyssey as the couple faces loss, racism, and a crisis of faith against the harsh yet beautiful backdrop of the desert.
Our story is just as hopeful as it is heartbreaking in its exploration of topics that so many face yet so few talk about.
We’re on a mission to start honest conversations around these topics as well as to help would-be mothers shed the shame and feel less alone.
These stories deserve to be told, but we can only tell them with your help.
By contributing to our film, you are helping to shed light on these unique experiences and advancing representation both in front of and behind the camera.
Donate today and spread the word to help us bring this project to life!
THE IMPACT
While developing Divine Mother, we learned that up to 1 in 4 known pregnancies end in miscarriage, or even more when you factor in unknown pregnancies.
Yet it’s still a topic that seems to come with so much shame, self-blame, and grief that it’s not often talked about, leading to so many would-be mothers feeling completely alone in their loss.
We’ve also learned that according to the CDC, “Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women. Multiple factors contribute to these disparities, such as variation in quality healthcare, underlying chronic conditions, structural racism, and implicit bias.”
With this heartbreaking statistic in mind, we felt it was also important to touch on what Aneka must face as a would-be Black mother encountering the racism of an unfamiliar doctor, and how that contributes to her emotional journey.
Furthermore, this project offers a unique perspective on an event that’s so common, yet so underexplored, as most filmic depictions of miscarriage do little to capture what it’s truly like for women.
We’ve seen this emotionally wrenching experience reduced to a solemn moment in a doctor’s office or crying behind a bathroom door… perhaps a factor of these stories very rarely being told with a woman behind the camera, let alone a woman of color in front of the camera.
Women made up 12% of directors working on the 100 top-grossing films in 2021, and Black women made up only 3.7% of leads/co-leads in the 100 top-grossing films of the last decade.
By supporting this film, you’re contributing to representation behind and in front of the camera, as well as nuanced depictions of the underexplored experiences we’re capturing in Divine Mother.
These stories deserve to be told, and we can only tell them with your help.
MEET OUR TEAM
ERIKA NAVARRO, WRITER/DIRECTOR
& EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Erika Navarro is a writer and director who has dedicated her life to the art of storytelling. In addition to directing Divine Mother, Erika is in post-production on her first feature-length documentary, Run Away Amy. As a director, Erika has helmed multiple short films, a web series, a pilot for a half-hour variety show, and most recently the award-winning flamenco-infused live show, Soul Dancer. As a writer, Erika has sold a children’s comedy pilot to Amazon Studios, been hired to write a feature adaptation of a novel for Charlize Theron’s production company, Denver & Delilah, and developed long-form projects with Universal Content Productions, Team Todd, and many others.
From 2010-2015, Erika was CEO and Founder of femme-driven digital studio Comediva, building an audience to the tune of 3M+ monthly views at its peak and producing more than 300 original comedy videos featured in outlets like Good Morning America, The New York Times, The Today Show, CNN, and countless more. During this time, Erika also produced original content for companies such as Univision and Nickelodeon, including an early docuseries chronicling the rise of pop megastar Becky G. Erika holds an MFA in Screenwriting from the USC School of Cinematic Arts and joined the Writer’s Guild of America in 2016.
AJARAE COLEMAN, LEAD ACTRESS
& EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Ajarae Coleman is an actress, producer, and entrepreneur whose rich storytelling career has seen her appear on national commercials and hit TV shows including ABC’s SCANDAL, THE CATCH, and PRIVATE PRACTICE, CBS’s NCIS: NEW ORLEANS, THE McCARTHYS and 2 BROKE GIRLS, NBC’s DAYS OF OUR LIVES, Netflix’s I’M SORRY, and more.
Through her coaching business, Acting Resource Guru, Ajarae is on a mission to empower actors to become industry leaders, so they can change the world with the stories they tell.
Ajarae also holds a Biological Anthropology degree from Harvard, and taught sixth grade in Compton as a Teach For America corps member, an experience that changed her life.
SKYLER BIBLE, LEAD ACTOR
Known for his role as ‘Fixer’ in Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett, Skyler Bible is a Native American actor/stuntman whose varied lovable and distressed characters have been seen around the world at international festivals, streaming, and on the big screen.
Whether it’s a begrudging officer starring alongside actor/director Jim Cummings in Orion Pictures’ horror comedy, The Wolf of Snow Hollow, or portraying Richard Gordon (Apollo 12) next to Ryan Gosling in Damien Chazelle’s First Man, being on set is like a 2nd home to him… nothing feels quite the same.
LUIS M. NAVARRO, PRODUCER
Luis M. Navarro is a versatile, creative, and passionate producer interested in telling forward- thinking stories that challenge existing conventions and have a meaningful impact on audiences. Prior to Divine Mother, he produced short film Alien Zoo, which dealt with the aftermath of sexual assault.
Luis has over a decade of experience in all aspects of production, as well as hands-on set experience in Grip & Electric and sound recording, among other crew roles. He served as a content producer and Director of Operations for femme-driven online comedy production studio Comediva from 2010-2015, which built an audience of 3M+ monthly views at its peak and produced more than 300 original comedy videos and a vast IP library of artwork and comedic articles. Comediva was featured in outlets like Good Morning America, The New York Times, The Today Show, CNN, and countless more.
Luis starred in and was a producer of the viral parody music video Klingon Style which garnered 7 million+ YouTube views and was featured on StarTrek.com & NBC News. Luis is fully bilingual in English and Spanish; has almost two decades of acting and voice-over experience; an extensive writing background, including screenwriting and comedic pieces; and has trained in and taught the martial arts for almost 30 years, specializing in Kenpo Karate and Filipino Escrima.
KRYSTYNA WALTERS, PRODUCER
Krystyna Walters is best known for producing The Next Big Thing with Lou Ferrigno, Marshall Manesh, James Kyson, and Jonathan Lipnicki. She also produced the feature films Greatest of All Tina and Three Midnights.
The Next Big Thing screened at festivals across the country before landing domestic and international distribution deals and enjoying a limited theatrical run.
Krystyna has produced four short films, three of which are award-winning. Her horror short Birth has earned seventeen laurels across the globe. Her producing debut Wonder Girls is now being developed into a feature film.
In addition to her producing work, Krystyna Walters works as an actress and a mama. The LA Times wrote she was “the most captivating part” of her last stage play, her last feature landed her one Best Actress award and four nominations, and her daughters declare she is “the best mama in the whole wide world.”
PARIJAT DESHPANDE, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Parijat Deshpande is a best selling author, speaker, consultant, producer, and somatic trauma professional whose mission is to improve high-risk pregnancy outcomes and end prematurity.
Over 80% of her clients have identified as BIPOC, a population that is most deeply impacted by systemic racism and disproportionately high rates of pregnancy complications and preterm delivery.
After her own experience with infertility, loss, high-risk pregnancy and extremely preterm delivery, Parijat went from patient to practitioner to help other women beat the statistics—a journey she chronicled in her bestselling book, Pregnancy Brain: A Mind-Body Approach to Stress Management During a High-Risk Pregnancy. This book has received support globally from maternal fetal medicine specialists and labor and delivery nurses, as well as former and current high-risk patients who recognize Pregnancy Brain as one of the best resources on a complicated family-building journey.
Dedicated to accessible, empowering information and accurate representation of high-risk pregnancies and prematurity, Parijat produces and partners with filmmakers on films, health education videos, documentaries, and storylines featured on TV and film that highlight complicated family-building journeys.
EMILIA MENDIETA CORDOVA, CINEMATOGRAPHER
Hailing from Wichita, Kansas by way of Quito, Ecuador, Emilia Mendieta Córdova is an Ecuadorian-American Cinematographer with a passion for bold visual storytelling. She has a B.A. from Vassar College and an MFA in Cinematography from the American Film Institute (AFI) Conservatory.
Emilia has shot numerous award-winning films including the Afro-futuristic sci-fi short CODE_SWITCH and three feature films: TO THE NEW GIRL, HOTEL REFINEMENT, and Mark S. Allen’s upcoming directorial debut AMY’S F**CK-IT LIST. On the commercial side, she has shot over 10 award-winning music video collaborations with Charley Young, and has produced, directed, and shot promos and a short-form food show for ABC10 (KXTV).
Emilia is multilingual (English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese), a classically-trained cellist, amateur Astrophotographer, culinary arts enthusiast, and a massive Star Wars fan. She is also a Part 107 FAA Certified Drone pilot.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Hi! I’m Erika Navarro, and I’m the writer and director of Divine Mother.
Inspired by true events from my own life as well as heart-to-heart conversations I’ve had with Ajarae over the past year, Divine Mother depicts the experience of pregnancy loss with raw emotion, spiritual truth, and a little bit of magical realism under a hot desert sun.
Years ago, I experienced a heartbreaking miscarriage myself and I was shocked to realize just how visceral and painful it was… it really is a profound loss that hits on all levels… mind, body, and spirit.
More recently, I experienced another pregnancy loss during a road trip, which makes for the setting of this film, and the perfect vehicle to capture the transient nature of this journey.
Storytelling is the best way I know to transmute these losses into something beautiful that brings them meaning and purpose.
Through the eyes of our lead character, Aneka, we look at these experiences with nuance and depth as she finds herself eye-to-eye with questions of faith in an environment that will test the mettle of her soul.
The harshness of the desert setting mirrors the harshness of nature herself… and the difficulty of bringing life into an unwelcoming world.
I think of the mama bird who throws a fledgling out of the nest when she detects its lack of viability in this world… this is an unemotional decision for her.
Yet human life is something so precious, so delicate, so mysterious… and the spiritual journey of becoming a mother is unlike any other.
“Why do some people get to be mothers and others just… don’t?”
This is a question that Aneka will ask in the film… and this story does not seek to answer that question, but rather to live in it.
It’s an ambitious vision both in style and substance, and your support is what will make it possible. Your contributions mean the world to us, and I can’t wait to share this film with you.
RESOURCES
Our partner Pregnancy & Infant Loss Support Centre (PILSC) offers many forms of support to loss parents including peer support, professional guidance, bereavement coach training, and events to support the loss community.
Our partner The Colette Louise Tisdahl Foundation offers financial assistance to families with high-risk & complicated pregnancies, parents with children in the NICU, & families who have experienced loss.
Our Executive Producer Parijat Deshpande is a high-risk pregnancy specialist and author of Pregnancy Brain. She supports high-risk pregnancies through her book, 1:1 and group work, and more.