Illinois Public Media, along with Uniting Pride and the Virginia Theatre’s Arthouse Experience, will be screening the 2022 documentary Mama Bears at 7 p.m. on June 30th.
From the film’s website:
Spread across the country but connected through private Facebook groups, they call themselves “mama bears” because while their love is warm and fuzzy, they fight ferociously to make the world kinder and safer for all LGBTQ+ people. Although some may have grown up as fundamentalist, evangelical Christians, mama bears are willing to risk losing friends, family, and faith communities to keep their offspring safe—even if it challenges their belief systems and rips their worlds apart.
The film looks at two of these “mama bears”, Sara Cunningham and Kimberly Shappley, as well as telling the story of Tammi Terrell Morris, “a young African American lesbian whose struggle for self-acceptance perfectly exemplifies why the mama bears are so vitally important.”
Following the film, there will be a panel discussion featuring “mama bears” and members of the LGBTQ+ community from Central Illinois.
Tickets are just $7, and can be purchased online or at the box office.
I’m hoping to make it to see the film on the big screen, but it’s also good to know that it will also be featured on Independent Lens, and will show on WILL-TV at 9 p.m., and will surely be available to watch through the PBS app. You can watch Illinois Public Media’s Kimberly Krannich interview the film’s director, Daresha Kyi, in the clip below: